Come back to me
by Insanity-is-Freedom
Summary: When Reborn arrives to train Sawada Ienari as the Vongola Decimo, he is closely followed by Sawa Tsunayoshi, a mysterious boy who seems to have a lot of secrets. What is the transfer student from Italy hiding? And what will Reborn do when he finds out? Twin fic, parenting Reborn, sky arcobaleno Tsuna, ill/abandoned Tsuna, pairings undecided.
1. Prologue

**I've been reading a lot of twin fics recently and was very inspired to write one myself. However, I had other sources of inspiration so the twins won't be the main focus of the story. I realize the summary wasn't very inspiring but I hope you'll try reading the first few chapters at least. I have not decided the pairings for this story and I might leave it up to vote later on. But I'd like people to see a little more of the story before any of you give your opinion.  
**

**Disclaimers are the usual, I'm not going to repeat them every chapter (I don't own anything, blah, blah, blah...).**

**With that said, I hope you enjoy reading and will look forward to reading the reviews you will leave behind ^^**

* * *

**Namimori, Sawada Household **

Sawada Nana was humming happily as she placed her son's breakfast on the table. She took a step back to examine her work before nodding with satisfaction and turning towards the staircase.

"Na-kun! Breakfast is ready!" she called at the top of her voice.

Satisfied with the muffled reply coming from the bathroom, she went back to the dining room. Soon after, the sound of someone hurrying down the steps could be heard. A blond boy came running into the room, sitting down hurriedly.

"Good morning, Na-kun." said Nana with a sweet smile.

"Morning." replied Sawada Ienari before he hastily started to eat.

The brown haired woman smiled at her son's antics. Just like every morning, he had gotten up late and had to race to get to school on time.

"By the way Na-kun, a tutor is coming today." she announced happily.

Her son nearly choked on his mouthful of cereals.

"WHAT?!" he cried out, eyes wide and disbelief evident in his expression. "But I don't need a tutor! I'm doing fine…"

This last sentence had been almost mumbled. Clearly, he wasn't doing fine. His grades were awful and he knew it. But that was okay because he wasn't interested in academics anyway, what he was interested in was football.

"The leaflet said he would make you into 'the leader of the next generation', isn't that nice?" continued Nana obliviously.

"That sounds like a scam." dead-panned Nari.

The conversation was cut short by the sound of the doorbell.

"Oh! That must be him!" exclaimed Nana. "Go and get the door would you Na-kun."

Grumbling about his mother's stupidity Ienari went to answer the door.

"Ciaossu!" said the fedora-wearing baby on the doorstep. "I'm the home tutor, Reborn."

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh?!"

* * *

**Namimori Airport**

A young boy with gravity defying brown hair passed security, dragging an orange suitcase behind him. He walked rather quickly despite his short legs, with assurance and purpose in his steps. He went unnoticed as he maneuvered through the crowd, his plain looks and simple clothing failing to attract any attention.

He managed to free himself of the crowd of travelers, his brown eyes lingering on the families that passed him by. He finally came to a stop outside the airport, automatically looking up at the blue sky overhead. The sight made him smile. He then lowered his eyes to look at his surroundings.

"So this is Namimori?" he asked himself in quiet voice.

He grinned briefly as he thought of the purpose of his journey before setting off to find the bus which would bring him into town.

* * *

**Italy, Sicilia**

"_Caelum_."

A middle-aged man wearing a white lab coat was knocking on the door of a run-down apartment. He had been at it for a few minutes and had finally resorted to calling the name of the apartment's inhabitant. Still receiving no reply he placed a hand on the doorknob. He was surprised when contrary to what he expected the door opened without resistance.

He frowned, worry settling inside of him.

"_Caelum? Lei è qui? _(_Are you here?)_" he called as he entered the dark apartment.

Hearing only silence, he made his way to the sitting room. Or at least, what had been a sitting room. It was empty. What meager furniture had once been in the room was gone, leaving only emptiness. Dread washed over the man. He rushed to check the other rooms, only to discover that they were in the same state. The only thing he found was a folded piece of paper on the bedroom's windowsill.

'_Shamal,' _it read. '_Sarò in Giappone per un certo periodo di tempo_ (I'll be in Japan for a while). _Ho preso le medicine ma non ti preoccupare _(I took my medication with me so don't worry)_. Ciao, Caelum.'_

The doctor rubbed his forehead heaving a deep sigh. That kid would be the death of him…

* * *

**Italy, Venice**

A ringtone erupted from a red cellphone resting on the bedside table. A teenager with silver hair entered the small room and grabbed the ringing device.

"_Sì__?_" he answered lazily. "Shamal? What do you want?"

As the man's voice spoke into his ear through the device, the boy's expression morphed into a deep frown.

"What do you mean, he's gone?" he asked finally.

Silence came to the room once again as he listened to the reply.

"Japan? What the fuck is he going to do there?"

The second question was asked more to himself than to the man on the other end.

"Yeah sure." he muttered still frowning. "_Ciao_."

He ended the call but kept the phone in his hand, staring or rather glaring at it as if it was going to give him the answer to his questions.

He jumped in surprise when it started ringing again. He quickly composed himself and took the call.

"_Sì?_" he asked once again. "_Sì, sono io _(Yes, it's me). _Chi è questo? _(Who is this?)"

"Reborn?!" he choked a moment later.

He was cut off by the other, and listened intently to the hitman's words.

"_Mi pare di capire. Io ci sarò presto._ (I understand. I'll be there soon.)" he said after a while. "_Ciao._"

The call ended and he was once again left to stare at it, wondering what the hell was going on.

"So Reborn is in Japan as well?" he mused. "What are you thinking, Caelum?"

He remained deep in thoughts for a few moments before shaking his head to dismiss the questions.

"Better let Shamal know." he mumbled under his breath, pressing a series of digits at lightning speed.

* * *

**Italy, Giglio Nero Mansion**

A young woman with long black hair was looking out the window of her Famiglia's mansion. Her deep blue eyes were fixed upon the sky overhead and a hand lingered on her chest where her mother's heirloom had once hung from a chain. Her hand suddenly clenched as her eyes narrowed. After a moment she released a deep breath.

"So it has started." she muttered to herself, still gazing at the clear sky.

Her hand fell back to her side and a smile graced her lips.

"_Boss, sei pronto per partire? (_Boss, are you ready to leave?)" asked a man with pale blond hair as he entered the study.

With a last glance out the window she left the room…


	2. The arrival of one Dame student

**First of all, thanks to my four reviewers and readers! I must say I was pleased to get reviews so quickly. I usually have to wait for days and wonder if my story is that bad ^^'  
**

**Anyway it was a nice surprise to see that people are interested in this fic, so thank you.**

**I added a cover, which I do not own. If anybody is interested in drawing one, be my guest (though it's a bit pretentious to think that someone might want too ^^')  
**

* * *

**Namimori, Sawada Household, Reborn and Ienari**

Any self-respecting hitman, had a hint of sadism, or at least cruelty, in them. Reborn being the number one hitman in the world had plenty of both. Especially when it came to waking up a lazy student. And even more so when said student had a talent for getting on his nerves. As it was Sawada Ienari, or Nari as he was more frequently called, was just that kind of student. Ever since he had first seen Reborn, the boy had been as disrespectful as one could possibly be. It would have been one thing if it had been only to the baby hitman but the teen was even rude to his mother. And if there was one thing that no Mafioso should disrespect, it was family. Of course, Reborn had promptly started tort…tutoring Ienari, starting with manners. A few kicks and bullets later, the blond boy had become completely unable to utter any hurtful words (it was just a nice side effect that he was also incapable of moving).

The fedora wearing infant had taken a lot of pleasure beating up his student. This might have been helped by the fact that Sawada Ienari, with his short spiky blonde hair and blue eyes, greatly resembled his father Sawada Iemitsu, who Reborn hated to the very core, for reasons obscure to even himself. But even though he wasn't sure why he hated the head of the CEDEF, Reborn was convinced that if his intuition told him that the man was someone worth hating, then he was. He might not have the Vongola's Hyper Intuition, but his instinct was still better than most. He had pride in it.

He also had pride in his pet chameleon, who went by the highly original name of Leon, and who could transform into any kind of object, which came in very handy. At the moment, Leon had assumed the shape of a defibrillator, while Reborn had put on a scientist's costume. Swiftly he placed the two metal rectangles on his student's chest and pressed the button to send electricity, successfully electrocuting his student.

"REBORN!" yelled the boy, once he got over the shock of the violent (and dangerous) wake up. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?"

"It's a traditional Vongola technique to wake people up." explained the infant, very pleased with himself. "You're lucky, sometimes the person never wakes up." he added detachedly.

"That's because they die!" yelled the blonde furiously.

"Get up or you'll be late Dame-Nari." said Reborn completely ignoring the boy and marching out of the bedroom.

He stopped outside the door, repeating the sentence in his mind. Somehow calling Ienari, "Dame-Nari" felt wrong. This fact puzzled him greatly. He quickly dismissed the thought in favor of going to drink a cup of espresso in the kitchen with 'Maman' as he had dubbed Sawada Nana.

A few minutes later, Ienari could be heard hurrying downstairs before he entered the kitchen. He ate his breakfast in record time and made to race out but was stopped by a kick to the head.

"Say goodbye to your mother, Baka-Nari." admonished Reborn, mentally noting that Baka-Nari sounded a lot better than Dame-Nari.

Ienari glared at his tutor but didn't reply, preferring to obey rather than be hit again.

"Bye Mum." he muttered hastily before rushing out the door.

"Ara, Na-kun is in a hurry this morning." remarked Nana, who seemed unfazed by her son's coldness. "Have a good day Reborn-kun."

"Ciao, Maman." replied the suit-wearing baby before following his student outside.

He quickly caught with the boy despite the fact that Ienari had been running the whole time. As soon as he got to his student's level, Reborn jumped on his head.

"Hurry up, Baka-Nari. You'll be late." he taunted as he made himself comfortable.

"Shut up!" snapped the blonde. "When the hell did you even get here, anyway?"

Reborn didn't deem it necessary to reply and settled for wracking the boy on the head and telling him to mind his language.

By some miracle, Ienari arrived at the school's gates just as the first bell was ringing thus escaping the beating that he would have otherwise received from the leader of Namimori Middle School's Disciplinary Committee, Hibari Kyoya. It went unnoticed to Ienari, that the fearsome tonfa wielding prefect was in fact absent from his usual position near the gates. Reborn, however, appeared to have noticed the boy's absence as he lowered his fedora, thus hiding his eyes from view.

Ienari continued running until he got to his classroom. He banged the door open causing his classmates to turn around. Panting, he walked towards his seat, making sure to smile at his friends in order to keep up the friendly appearance. He didn't have time to go and greet them however as he was closely followed by the teacher.

"A transfer student from Italy will be joining our class today. Make sure to welcome him properly." announced the woman effectively catching the entire class' attention. "You may come in, now." she called towards the door.

* * *

**Namimori, Sawa Tsunayoshi**

Having retrieved his new uniform and changed, the brunet with unusually spiky hair made his way towards the classroom the secretary had indicated. Checking his watch, he realized he would be late if he kept walking at such a slow pace. Any normal person at this point would have started running like a headless chicken, but he preferred to simply quicken his pace. He had once been taught that it was better to be a few minutes late and give off a calm and serene aura rather than be on time and look like you had just run a marathon. First appearances were unfortunately the base of every contact you may have with others and it was even more important in business. You would never be able to make a solid partnership with someone if you appeared sloppy.

Of course, it probably wouldn't make much of a difference as he was only going to meet his classmates and not potential business partners. But still…

He still made it on time, with a few minutes to spare as the teacher was a little late. She arrived at last and after a brief introduction told him to wait until she called him inside. With a polite smile to the teacher he resumed his silent waiting.

It wasn't long until he heard the teacher calling him. Taking a deep breath he opened the door and marched to the front of the class. Standing in front of the class and smiling shyly, he stuttered his introduction.

"M-my name is S-Sawa Tsunayoshi, b-but Tsuna is fine. N-nice to meet you."

He sweat dropped as he noticed the disappointed stares of his new classmates. Apparently Tsuna's plain looks and generally useless demeanor wasn't to their taste. Well, it wasn't his fault that he looked like he did. They shouldn't have had any expectations in the first place. Then they wouldn't have been disappointed.

He was so taken by his inner muttering that he nearly missed the teacher's instructions.

"Well Sawa-kun, you can sit in either one of the free seats at the back." said the woman.

"Y-yes sensei."

The brown eyes darted at the back row, quickly spotting the empty seats. He started walking towards them trying to decide which one he should take. One was next to a dark haired boy with a friendly smile. He was perhaps the only one who, if he had been disappointed by Tsuna's appearance, hadn't let anything show. The other seat was behind a boy with spiky blond hair similar to his own, though the blonde's was shorter. The boy looked bored out of his mind.

Reaching the last row, Tsuna placed his bag on the table behind the blond. If his intuition was right, this seat would serve his purpose better than the other one.

* * *

**Namimori Middle, Reborn**

Reborn had positioned himself on the branch of a tall tree, directly outside his student's classroom. He was busy spy…watching the class through the window thanks to his Leon-binoculars. Earlier he had placed a tiny microphone in the classroom which was directly linked to his earpiece. He was therefore able to hear every word stuttered by that pathetic transfer student. For the first time since he had arrived in Japan, Reborn felt that Nari wasn't such a bad student after all. What would it have been if he had been ordered to tutor this…Sawa Tsunayoshi.

The only impressive thing about the boy was his hair cut. If Reborn once thought his hair was spiky, that boy's was way worse. It was somehow amazing that his light brown hair could stick out at such odd angles without any care for the laws of gravity. But for some reason, that strange haircut made him all the more pathetic. It was one thing that he was unusually small, terribly thin and simply pathetically weak-looking, it was another that he had something that made his stand out. Dino for example had taken useless to new heights but he, at least, didn't stand out. That Sawa Tsunayoshi would surely be bullied if he was as no-good as his looks implied.

Reborn watched the new student take the seat directly behind Ienari.

He would have to keep an eye on him all the same. That teacher, whatever her name was, had said he was transferring for Italy. And by chance, he had taken the seat behind the future tenth generation boss of Vongola? That was one hell of a coincidence if anyone asked him. Not to mention he looked very similar to…but that was probably a coincidence. Another one.

He watched as Sawa Tsunayoshi was called to the blackboard to solve an exercise. After a very poor display the boy was sent back harshly to his seat and tripped on a bag on his way back. His classmates erupted into laughter and jeers fused, which made the brunet look down with an embarrassed blush. Reborn smirked. He truly was a 'Dame-Tsuna', then. There was just no way a kid as useless as him would be involved with the mafia.

The baby hitman was about to leave when a pair of brown eyes suddenly turned towards him. Reborn hastily his from view. Sawa Tsunayoshi's eyes lingered on the tree for a few moments before he once again faced the front of the class. Reborn lowered his fedora over his eyes. Had that been a coincidence? He would have to find out, but first…

He jumped to the ground with a smirk. It was time to make a few hiding places around the school.

* * *

**Namimori Middle, Disciplinary Committee, Hibari Kyoya**

Hibari Kyoya, feared leader of Namimori Middle's Disciplinary Committee, was sitting at his desk in the Reception Room, looking through the file of one Sawa Tsunayoshi.

The herbivore had enrolled in the school a few days before. He hadn't given much information about himself. Only that he came from Italy and wanted to go back to his homeland, Japan. Supposedly, his mother had died and his father was employed in some big company in Italy and wasn't often home. He had given a phone number to contact in case of emergency but no name attached. He could only wonder if that number was his father's or someone else's.

Of course, he had already asked his second in command, Kusakabe Tetsuya, to do some extra research on the boy. Strangely enough, they hadn't found anything. The last name 'Sawa' was rather rare and there were no 'Sawa Tsunayoshi' in existance. The closest they had found was a 'Sawada Tsunayoshi', twin brother of Sawada Ienari, born in Namimori. The dark haired Prefect had managed to get a copy of the birth certificate thanks to his…influence. The document stated that Sawada Tsunayoshi, born on the 14th of October, five seconds before his twin brother Sawada Ienari, had had a fatal illness of which he had died a few weeks after his birth. In short, even if the herbivore's true name was Sawada, the only person with whom he shared a name had been dead for thirteen years.

Needless to say, Hibari Kyoya was not happy. The transfer student was a mystery. He didn't even have a record of his schooling in Italy since the boy had apparently been homeschooled his entire life. When the boy had been asked why, he had replied that his father travelled a lot for his work and since he had no other family he had had to follow him. Since it would have been unpractical to keep changing schools his father had chosen to homeschool him.

Even if his story was true, it was too strange his highly efficient information network hadn't been able to trace the boy at all.

The raven haired Prefect growled in frustration as he slammed the file shut. He glanced at the clock on the wall before getting to his feet. It was time to patrol the corridors. With some luck there would be herbivores on whom he could vent his anger.


	3. Transfer student, prefect and pervert

**I forgot to mention in the previous chapters but I don't speak a word of Italian so all the Italian dialogues you'll see come straight from the online translator. If they're not grammatically correct or something, I apologize but I have no way of knowing and I probably won't bother correcting it. I'm telling you this so that you will refrain from flaming me for it. Not that I've received any, but just in case (until now I have only had angelic reviewers *.*).**

**Also, I wish to thank my reviewers. I was happy to know that so many people are interested in this fic. I hope I won't disappoint you all!**

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Roof, Sawa Tsunayoshi**

The door opening on the school's roof opened noisily allowing entrance to one Sawa Tsunayoshi. The boy walked up to the green railing. He clung to it and looked up at the cloudy sky, sighing heavily. He had only been in school for half a day and he was already tired of it. His classmates, though he was sure they were not bad people, had teased him mercilessly about his clumsiness. Their laughs, when he tripped on the bag in first period, still rung in his ears. They had also made fun of his abysmal academic abilities. They had mocked him when he had had trouble reading the kanjis in Japanese Literature, and by the time the bell rung signaling lunchtime he had earned the nickname _Dame_-Tsuna.

His brown eyes turned mournful as he recalled the various incidents. He had been aware of his incurable clumsiness for a long time but he hadn't realized just how cruel teenagers could be when making fun of him for it. They carefree laughs showed they had absolutely no care for his feelings. Having said that, he was used to being mocked; his own father used to do it a lot after all. There was, however, a difference between his father's laugh, and say, Sawada Ienari's. While his _Papa_ made fun of him when he made mistakes, he praised him when he did something well and in rare occasions would have an affectionate gesture towards his son. No matter what, Tsuna had always felt loved. His blond classmate on the other hand only acknowledged his existence when he was laughing at him. The rest of the time Tsunayoshi didn't exist in the boy's eyes.

And it was the same way with most of his classmates. There was only a few who didn't participate in the relentless teasing. One especially. It was a girl called Sasagawa Kyoko, who sported short orange hair. She had looked genuinely worried when he had fallen to the ground and had asked if he was okay at the following break. Her dark haired friend, Kurokawa-san, had called him a monkey but had seemed glad he was fine all the same. Apart from the two girls, the few classmates who hadn't laughed at him, simply didn't care about him and hadn't tried to make contact with the brown haired boy.

Well, it didn't matter. He hadn't come to Japan to make friends anyway. Putting a hand in his pocket, he took out a flat rectangular box and opened it. He smiled sadly as he gazed at the photo resting inside the box. He'd come for him. His father.

Tenderly, he passed a finger on the figure of the tall man who was carrying a seven year old Tsunayoshi. The brown haired child was smiling brightly and looked at the man lovingly. The man had a similar expression, as he watched the child in his arms, though his smile was more discreet.

Tsunayoshi snapped the box shut, before the tears he could feel burning his eyelids could roll down his cheeks. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again and looking up once more. There were loads of clouds that day. The entire sky was dark grey and the air was cold. It was as if the sky itself was angry. The comparison made Tsuna smile. The sound of the door opening behind him made him jump.

He turned around, coming face to face with a dark haired boy seemingly older than he was, and wearing a black jacket on his shoulders.

"Herbivore." said the boy, his cold grey eyes stopping on Tsuna's own. "The bell rang five minutes ago. Cutting classes is inexcusable. I'll bite you to death."

A tonfa banged against the railing where Tsuna's face had been a second before.

"Hiie!" squeaked Tsuna, who had rapidly sled down to the floor when the tonfa had started approaching him and was now more or less squatting. "I-I'm s-s-s-sorry! I'll g-go i-immediately!"

With these words, Tsunayoshi hastily ran away, cursing himself for not hearing the bell before this intimidating individual arrived. He ran at top speed down the stairs, only stopping to catch his breath when he was sure the scary raven-haired boy wasn't following him.

On the roof, a Skylark was staring at the door through which the intriguing herbivore had just disappeared. The steel colored eyes flashed dangerously as the herbivorous boy's flight replayed in the Prefect's mind. Whether it was planned or not, the herbivore had managed to evade his attack which was practically a miracle considering the boy's reputation for uselessness. Because the story of his clumsiness had already reached the entire school, even coming to the ears of the most feared person of Namimori. Of course, Hibari still thought the herbivore was pathetically weak, but he was now wondering if there wasn't anything more to him than what met the eye. He would have to test him later…

* * *

**Following morning, in the streets, Reborn and Ienari**

"You're in love with Sasagawa Kyoko, right?" asked Reborn casually as he walked slightly ahead of his stupid student.

"H-How do you know that, Reborn?!" exclaimed the blonde boy.

The baby tilted his fedora, effectively hiding his eyes, and smirked.

"_Baka_-Nari, it was obvious." he said. "You're going to confess to her."

"What?! What are you talking about? There's no way I'm confessing." retorted Ienari shaking his head violently.

Annoyed by his student's attitude, Reborn took hold of hammer-Leon and hit him with it on the head. Hard. The blonde boy was instantly reduced to whimpers as he held his abused head.

"I said you were going to confess, so you are." insisted Reborn.

"WHY IS IT ANY OF YOUR BUSINESS WHETHER I CONFESS OR NOT?!"

"It is finally time." continued the infant purposefully ignoring his screaming student.

Leon transformed once more, assuming the shape of a green gun.

"Die." said Reborn pointing the gun at his student. "Go die once."

Ienari stared at the baby with wide eyes.

"That's a toy, right?" he murmured eyeing the weapon suspiciously.

The hitman didn't reply and pulled the trigger. The bullet flew to the boy's forehead and he fell to the ground, eyes still wide open.

"REBORN!" yelled the blonde as he shot up, ripping his clothes apart save from his boxers. "I'LL CONFESS TO SASAGAWA KYOKO WITH MY DYING WILL!"

The smirking baby watched as his student raced towards the school in his boxers, a flame burning on his forehead. Shooting _Baka_-Nari had felt even better than he had first thought. It was a pity the bullet was a Dying Will Bullet. It would have been a relief if the boy had dropped dead…

"Erm, baby?"

Trying not to show his surprise Reborn turned around. He was amazed to see that the one who had managed to sneak behind him was none other than Sawa Tsunayoshi.

"Ciaossu. What do you want, _Dame_-Tsuna?" asked the hitman, looking up at the bending teen.

The boy seemed depressed at the thought that even a baby knew his degrading nickname.

"Erm, is Sawada-kun going to be alright?" asked the boy.

The baby examined the teen. This kid really had a weak presence; he was just like a ghost. Otherwise he would never have been able to surprise the number one hitman in the world.

"A-are you listening to me?" asked Sawa Tsunayoshi who was starting to think the baby was ignoring him.

"He'll be fine." said Reborn answering the boy's earlier question.

"Is that so? Well, that's fine then."

The boy straightened himself and made to leave. Reborn promptly jumped on the boy's head and sat there.

"Hi-hiee!" squeaked _Dame_-Tsuna in surprise. "W-What are you doing?"

"Shut up, _Dame_-Tsuna." admonished the baby, kicking his head lightly for good measure.

"Ouch." muttered the teen as he started walking towards the school.

Reborn was enjoying the ride. Tsunayoshi's hair was much softer and comfortable than _Baka_-Nari's. Maybe he had judged the boy too quickly: he might have made a better student than _Baka_-Nari after all.

"What's your name?" asked _Dame_-Tsuna conversationally.

"Reborn."

"Are you Sawada-kun's little brother?" asked the teen curiously.

"No, I'm his home tutor." replied the baby. "I'm training him to be a mafia boss."

"Heee, that's amazing, Reborn-kun." said the boy gently, his tone suggesting that he didn't believe a word the infant had said. "Is that why you wear a suit, then? Because you're in the mafia?"

"Yeah."

They walked in silence for a few minutes, or rather Tsuna walked and Reborn sat. Their comfortable peace was interrupted when they got to the Middle School's gates just in time to witness Ienari's flashy confession.

"SASAGAWA KYOKO, WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME?" asked the boxer-wearing blonde.

From his spot on Tsuna's head, Reborn heard the boy chuckle softly. This, for some reason, made him smirk.

Once the agitation caused by Sawada Ienari's little show was over, Tsunayoshi approached the gates. When he walked past the blonde who was still in his boxers but who was now sporting a deep blush, Reborn jumped to the ground, landing next to his student. Noticing the disappearance of the extra weight, Tsunayoshi turned around, smiling when he spotted Reborn.

"Are you stopping here?" he asked rather rhetorically. "I guess I'll see you around then, Reborn."

"Ciao, _Dame_-Tsuna." replied the baby.

The brown haired boy waved lightly and walked away, leaving the baby and the blond behind. Ienari watched the exchange suspiciously, momentarily forgetting his impromptu confession and appearance.

"When did you and _Dame_-Tsuna become friends?" he asked bitterly, earning himself a kick to the head from the fedora-wearing infant.

While he was beating up his student, just because he could, Reborn's thoughts went back to the transfer student. He certainly had an unnaturally weak presence, but apart from that he seemed normal. He hadn't been able to feel Reborn's aura or else he wouldn't have been so relaxed around the hitman. Even_ Baka_-Nari felt it to some extent. But _Dame_-Tsuna had just acted as if he was talking to a normal baby. He hadn't even stuttered as much as usual.

No, _Dame_-Tsuna was nothing extraordinary. He was just a useless teenager. His uncanny resemblance with a certain famous Mafioso and the way he had turned towards the tree Reborn was on the other day were all flukes. He was nothing more than a below average student. Still, there was something odd about the boy, his instinct told him so.


	4. Sawada vs Mochida

**Thanks for the reviews (especially since they're so quick)! I've noticed that there has been a lot of 'short chapter' comments. I'm writing chapters of approximately 2 000 words but most end up being more or less 1 700 words long. It might seem short but think about it that way: short chapters take less time to write, so I can update faster. It's a problem of inspiration. I'm not much of a long chapter writer I'm afraid. Anyway, just so you're not surprised by the length, chapters will be between 1 700 and 2 000 words. **

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Sawa Tsunayoshi**

Tsuna was sitting at his desk, doing his best to make his classmates forget about him. It wasn't a difficult task as the other students had found something a lot more interesting to do than tease him. Ienari's confession had indeed become the school's hot topic. Tsunayoshi wasn't remotely interested in hearing the story being recounted countless times, especially since he had been there in the first place. However, a new development, that he hadn't been aware of, caught his attention.

"Did you hear that Mochida-senpai challenged Sawada to a fight?" said one of the football players to his friend Yamamoto Takeshi.

"Eh? He did?"

"Yeah, you know how he's always with Sasagawa?" continued the football player. "Well, apparently he decided to defend Sasagawa's honor by challenging Sawada."

At this point, Tsunayoshi was intently eavesdropping. This was an interesting turn of events.

"I heard about that too! Apparently, it'll be after school in the gymnasium." added a boy with glasses whose name hadn't been registered by Tsuna's brain yet.

Deciding that he heard everything he needed to know, Tsuna quietly slipped out of the classroom. He shipped a small plastic box out of his pocket and started repeatedly throwing it and catching it as he walked.

If he remembered well, Mochida was a member of the _kendo_ club. In fact, he was Captain. He was probably strong. He had been the one to challenge Ienari after all. He would have to be confident in his strength to ask for a fight. Having said that, Ienari didn't look particularly strong, so that might have made the decision easier.

While he was pondering over Mochida-senpai's fighting abilities, he arrived in a deserted corridor. Leaning against the wall, he opened the box he had been playing with. Inside were bright yellow pills. He took one and put in his mouth. After swallowing the pill, he shut the box and placed it back into his pocket.

He supposed he might as well go and watch the fight. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. And it might actually be interesting.

* * *

**Namimori Airport, Gokudera Hayato**

A young silver haired boy stepped out of the airport, a red sports bag slung across his shoulders. With his sea green eyes narrowed into a cold glare and ripped jeans he looked intimidating enough for most people to avoid him and for frightened murmurs to follow him. He took a cigarette out and lit it, before fishing a red cell phone out of his pocket. He flipped it open and scrolled down his contacts. He stopped in front of the name 'Caelum', his finger hovering over the button as if he was hesitating whether or not to call the number.

Deciding against it he snapped the phone shut, appearing even more irritated than he had been a moment before. He glared rebelliously at the people around him who hurried away immediately. Shoving his hands into his pockets he made for the bus stop.

He was planning on stopping by his apartment first before going to the school he would be attending, in order to get a glimpse of the future tenth boss of the Vongola Family. Testing his future boss was the official reason for his coming to Japan. Of course, recent events had played a huge role into his decision to join Reborn in the Eastern country as soon as possible.

Seriously, what was Caelum thinking? For as long as he remembered the boy had always been laidback but contrary to what one might expect from such a person, he always thought before acting and was especially careful of other people's feelings. It was therefore surprising that he had left Italy so suddenly without a thought for those he left behind. Gokudera Hayato couldn't even start to guess what had prompted such a sudden decision. Well, maybe he could start to guess…but it seemed somehow surreal that Caelum of all people would…

No, he most likely had a hidden agenda of a different nature. Everybody knew how crafty that guy could become when he wanted to…

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Gymnasium, Sawa Tsunayoshi**

It was finally time for the duel between Sawada Ienari and the _kendo_ club Captain. So many students had assembled in the gymnasium that Tsuna briefly wondered if the entire school had come. Then, he noticed that Tengawa-kun, the nerd of the class, wasn't there. It was rather logical, now that he thought about it. Only the students interested in gossip, big events and/or affiliated either to Ienari or Mochida would come; which was still a large part of the student body.

The chestnut haired boy stayed away from the crowd, preferring to remain on the side rather than try to push his way to the front. That meant he wouldn't get a good view of the action but that didn't really matter to him. All he wanted to know was how strong Ienari was, and he could already make a good guess from the crowd's comments on the blonde.

"I bet he won't show up." was saying an upperclassman to his friends while some girls not far from them were giggling about how strong Mochida was compared to Ienari.

Of course, he was going to form his own opinion on the matter by watching the match, but what he heard gave him a pretty accurate idea of how strong, or weak as it was, Ienari was. It wouldn't be a problem that he couldn't see the center of the gymnasium since he would most likely be able to tell what was happening from the reactions of the audience.

For now, whether he would be able to see or not was a minor issue, the main one being Ienari's noticeable absence. He was already ten minutes late and some of the waiting students were starting to become impatient. The few _kendo_ members who had gathered behind their Captain in the middle of the gymnasium appeared to take Sawada's absence as a sign that he had run away.

Tsuna thought that this might actually be true. Ienari didn't look like the kind of guy who would come and fight. Then again, Reborn would probably force him to come. From what he had seen, the baby was the forceful type. The so-called hitman would see the duel as an occasion to train his student.

A loud and obnoxious laugh caught his attention, and he turned towards Mochida-senpai who was standing in the middle of the crowd. The Captain was laughing, hands on his armored sides, nose in the air and with a triumphant expression. He looked like he had already won the battle. Not that it was necessarily wrong. Tsunayoshi peeked at his wrist watch. Fifteen minutes. It was about time the blonde made an appearance, or else the dark haired upperclassman would win by default. Tsuna felt sorry for the red haired female who was supposedly the winner's 'prize'.

As if he had read the brunet's thoughts, Ienari chose that moment to step inside the gymnasium. He looked momentarily taken aback by the amount of people who had come to see the duel, but quickly regained his countenance. He walked towards Mochida with a blank expression, albeit a little stiffly. Tsuna didn't pay much attention as the _kendo_ Captain explained the rules of the match to his comparatively frail-looking underclassman. His eyes travelled around the place, searching for the small figure of Ienari's home tutor. He found him standing on the railing of the gymnasium's balcony, on the wall opposite the one he was currently leaning against. The infant didn't seem to notice him as he was watching his student intently.

When one of the _kendo_ club's members shouted for the match to start, Tsuna shifted his attention back to the dueling duo. As expected he couldn't see anything that happened but from the loud '_thunk'_ he heard, before murmurs erupted in the crowd coupled with a few jeers, he guessed that Ienari had been hit quite hard. From the corner of his eye he detected movement on the balcony and looked up. The fedora-wearing baby was holding a green sniper rifle and was pointing it at the center of the crowd.

Tuna barely had time to register what was happening before the child pulled the trigger.

"REBORN!" shouted Ienari loud enough for the neighbors to hear. "I'LL WIN WITH MY DYING WILL!"

After that, it was chaos. The crowd was cheering extremely loudly and Tsuna could only make out comments such as 'Pervert!', 'Pants-man!' or 'Go for it!'. From those he guessed that the baby had used the same technique (most likely bullet since he had used a gun) he had used in the morning, when the brown haired boy had witnessed his blonde classmate confessing to Sasagawa Kyoko. And from the sound of it, it was effective.

A moment later, the red flag of victory was raised and shouts of 'Amazing! He actually won!' came from all sides. A small smile made its way to Tsuna's lips. Maybe this would be more interesting than he had first thought.

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Gymnasium, Gokudera Hayato**

The silver haired young man was standing at the gymnasium's doors. He had arrived just in time to see the end of the match. It seemed the one he had come to see was still an amateur and he was not convinced that he was worthy to be the Vongola Decimo. Admittedly, he was strong enough to win against the guy with the armor but he didn't look all that impressive. Not to mention he had only won thanks to the Special Vongola Bullet: the Dying Will Bullet, which, if he had to guess, had probably been shot by Reborn. Therefore he hadn't won with his own strength. Plus he looked really lame in his boxers, but that was a detail…

Gokudera Hayato took one last look at Vongola's future boss and turned on his heels. He would have to ascertain the boy's strength and potential as a Boss before he decided what to do. Or rather, he would have to find Caelum and find out what he was planning before he did anything. He wasn't someone the silver haired teen wanted to go against.

Having said that, he didn't want to be on Reborn's bad side either. He supposed he could start by testing Sawada Ienari as Reborn had asked, and decide what he would do next after he had met up with Caelum. Yes, that seemed like the best course of action.

Anyhow, it would all start tomorrow…


	5. What's with those Italian students?

**Thank you again for the reviews! I see that people have been asking a lot of questions to which I'm not going to reply *.* (not my fault, it would spoil the story if I did)  
**

**I had decided to put the main pairing up to vote so I'm giving you the choices now so that you can start thinking about it, but the actual vote won't start for a while. The reason for this being that there are certain circumstances that need to be taken into account and those won't be revealed immediately.**

**Anyway the possibilities are: 1827 (Hibari x Tsuna), R27 (Reborn x Tsuna) or no pairing.**

**Also, I don't have much experience at writing romance so 'no pairing' might be the best option -_-**

**Anyway, think about it while reading and I'll tell you when I decide to start the vote.**

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Sawada Ienari**

In just a week, Sawada Ienari's life had gone from peaceful to chaotic.

Everything had started with the arrival of a baby wearing a suit and fedora, named Reborn, who had announced that he would be training the blonde teen to become a mafia boss. And not just any mafia boss, but the heir to the biggest Italian mafia Famiglia, and one of the most prominent groups in the world. Then, there had been the new transfer student whose name resembled his own. Sawa Tsunayoshi didn't have anything going for him and Nari, or Baka-Nari as Reborn had taken to calling him, wouldn't have paid the boy any attention if not for the fact that he had somehow managed to befriend Sasagawa Kyoko.

Well, befriend might be too strong a word. He had only talked to the red haired girl a few times, even managing to make her laugh once. Apart from that they were just regular classmates. However, no matter how small the contact had been, it was still more than Ienari had managed in the years he had been the girl's classmate. And because of this, he was jealous. Especially after he had essentially made a fool of himself by confessing to his crush in nothing but boxers. Winning against Mochida had eased the embarrassment a little but he was still shamed by the fact that he had once again done so nearly naked.

All in all, his life had taken a sharp turn for the worst ever since Reborn had arrived on his doorstep. And it appeared, as the teacher introduced yet another transfer student from Italy, that he still hadn't seen the end of the tunnel.

If Sawa Tsunayoshi looked nothing like a criminal, Gokudera Hayato on the contrary looked like he could very well be affiliated to the Mafia. The boy had medium length silver hair that reached his shoulders and sea green eyes narrowed into an eternal glare. The hands shoved into the pockets of his trousers and the deep scowl completed his bad boy looks. Which, incidentally, appeared to be to the girls' taste.

The blonde peeked over his shoulder at the red haired girl sitting in the back row. Even Kyoko was looking at the Italian with a dreamy expression.

He turned back towards the front feeling utterly depressed, only to see the new boy advancing towards him looking supremely pissed off. Ienari shrunk on himself in an attempt to make himself as small as possible. The glare the boy was sending his way was rather intimidating and he didn't feel brave enough to stand up to someone who looked like he had killed before. He became paralyzed when the silver haired boy stopped next to his desk.

The boy clicked his tongue, annoyed for some reason or other and kicked Nari's desk. Both the desk and its occupant were sent to the floor. A not-so-manly shriek escaped the blonde's lips as he was sent tumbling to the ground.

"Hey, Nari! Do you know him?" whispered the boy sitting next to him.

"I've never seen him before." whispered back the blonde bitterly as he straightened his desk.

When he looked back at the transfer student he noticed the green eyes looking at the empty desk next to him. Now that he thought about it, Sawa hadn't shown up this morning. He wondered if anything had happened to the brunet. His train of thoughts was cut short when the silver haired boy's glare which fixed itself on him. The blonde boy abruptly turned back to the front. This guy was way too scary.

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Roof, Tsunayoshi and Hibari**

At lunch break, Tsuna found himself on the roof once again. He had only been in school for about half an hour as he had missed his morning classes. He felt a bit guilty for sleeping in late that morning, thus skipping his lessons, especially since he had been neglecting his studies for the past few months. If his _Papa_ heard about this, he wasn't sure he'd make it out alive. Maybe it was a good thing the man wasn't around anymore. Or not…

The door's creaking informed him of another's arrival.

"Omnivore." said the newcomer, his tone and expression neutral. "For skipping classes this morning, I'll bite you to death."

Absent-mindedly, the brunet noted that he had been upgraded to an omnivore since his last run-in with the leader of the Disciplinary Committee.

A tonfa was swung his way, and, abandoning all pretense of uselessness, Tsuna swiftly evaded it. There was no use in acting around someone who had already guessed his true nature. Especially if it could save him the bruises and aches that inevitably came with the beating he would otherwise receive from the raven haired Prefect. He took a few steps back and held his hands up in defense.

"Wait a minute." he said. "I know it was wrong of me to cut class and I'm ready to make up for it with extra homework or something, but could we not fight?"

The Prefect frowned, seemingly deep in thoughts. He eyed the brunet warily as if trying to decide if there was any valid reason why he should be lenient with the smaller teen. Tsuna took the boy's silence as his cue to explain why he hadn't attended his morning classes.

"I haven't been feeling very well lately and accidentally slept in this morning." he explained quickly.

He hoped that would satisfy the upperclassman as he couldn't see himself explaining exactly what kind of sickness he had. It would be revealing a little too much about him.

The brunet sweat-dropped as he saw the steel eyed boy raise his tonfas. Apparently, his reason hadn't been good enough.

"How about…" he quickly looked for something that would stop the boy in his tracks. "How about I fight you once I'm better? A spar of sorts."

The raven haired boy stilled.

"Hn." he said after a moment of silence, lowering his weapons.

Tsuna heaved a sigh of relief. That had been a close one.

The sound of an explosion made him jump. Momentarily forgetting about the Prefect, he rushed to the railing and looked down at the school grounds. He quickly spotted the silhouettes of Sawada Ienari and of a silver haired boy. The latter took out sticks of dynamite which he threw at his…opponent.

The brunet watched in surprise, as Ienari started running around like a headless chicken, shrieking loudly.

"Herbivores." growled the Prefect, glaring at the two teens below.

Tsuna jumped a little when he realized that the older boy was now standing next to him. The proximity was as sudden as unexpected. Surprisingly, the raven haired boy didn't even seem to care that he was technically 'crowding'. Or maybe two people weren't counted as a 'crowd'.

"REBORN!" yelled Sawada.

Tsuna looked down once more. The blonde was now running around putting out the dynamite with his bare hands. In his boxers.

"I'll bite them to death for disrupting the peace of Namimori." growled Hibari as he marched towards the door, no doubt heading towards the duo.

Tsuna watched him leave with an amused smile before going back to watching the scene. The silver haired boy was now talking animatedly to a dumb-struck Ienari. Tsuna couldn't hear the words said by the bomber but he could guess what it was all about from the extinguished sticks of dynamite lying around the intimidating teenager.

This, he thought as he witnessed the arrival of Hibari, was an unexpected development.

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, behind the school, Gokudera Hayato**

As soon as the bell rung signaling the end of classes for the day, Gokudera Hayato rushed out of the classroom. He walked quickly, glaring at those who were standing in his way. He wasn't about to let these pathetic weaklings waste his time. He had an important appointment after all.

During lunch break, he had evaluated the future tenth boss of the Vongola Famiglia. The fight hadn't been very serious. He had just thrown a bunch of dynamites around to see how the boy would react. He supposed the boss candidate had fared quite well as he had managed to win the fight (if you could call that a fight). Though, he had only done so thanks to Reborn's interference.

The silver haired boy rounded a corner, coming face to face with a familiar boy.

"Caelum." he greeted expressionlessly.

"Hayato." answered the boy. "_Come và? _(How are you?)"

"_Sto bene. E tu? _(I'm fine. How about you?)"

The smaller boy smiled.

"I've been doing well." he said casually, switching to Japanese.

The silver haired boy frowned, turning serious.

"Why did you leave so suddenly, Caelum?"

Caelum's smile didn't falter.

"I would have thought it was obvious." he said his eyes flashing with something akin to irony.

The bomber gritted his teeth.

"What exactly are you planning?" he hissed.

The other boy shrugged.

"I have yet to decide that. But I thought long and hard about everything and I've decided I decided I didn't have enough time to care about how other feel." he said, his eyes becoming distant.

The silver haired boy observed the other intently.

"Right." he said at last. "I suppose I can't really blame you for that."

The frail boy smiled sadly, not looking at him.

"What about you Hayato? How was your meeting with Vongola the tenth?" asked the boy softly, turning a pair of warm brown eyes towards the other teen.

"Oh that…" sighed the bomber. "Well…"

_Flashback_

_Sawada Ienari had just finished extinguishing the dynamite that had fallen around him. He fell to his knees, thanking him profusely._

"_Good job, Baka-Nari." said Reborn as he stepped out of the shadows. "You have won your first subordinate."_

"_What?!" screeched the blonde._

"_The one who loses becomes the winner's subordinate, it's the rules." explained the baby._

_The silver haired decided to remain silent. He didn't particularly want to become the blonde's subordinate, but as the baby had said: it was the rules._

"_I don't want him. How could I trust him after he tried to kill me?" replied Ienari, looking disgusted._

_Despite his unwillingness to serve the blonde, the silver haired boy felt a bit hurt by the rejection. This certainly wasn't the attitude a Boss should have. _

_Reborn seemed to think along the same lines if his lowering his fedora to hide his eyes was any indication._

"_Herbivores." the trio turned to face the newcomer. "I'll bite you all to death for disturbing the peace." growled the Prefect._

"_Hiiiieeee!"_

_With a loud scream, Ienari took off, closely followed by Gokudera._

_Flashback End_

"He refused to make me his subordinate." summarized the silver haired boy.

"I see." said the teen softly, looking deep in thoughts. "Hayato, I've got a favor to ask of you…"

The bomber's sea green eyes met Caelum's, and he could see the weight of the smaller boy's internal struggle.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked, taking his decision.


	6. A tutor for Tsuna

**And here goes the next chapter! You'll have to forgive me by I was obsessed with **_**Demons**_** by Imagine Dragons when I wrote it so it's a bit dark. Still, a chapter is a chapter.**

**Thanks for the reviews and all the favorites/follows I got. And I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Sawa Tsunayoshi**

"Kawada."

"Yes."

"Kurihara."

"Yes."

Tsuna was fidgeting in his seat. Nezu-_sensei_ was giving their science tests back and he felt nervous. After arriving in Namimori Middle School he realized he was really behind in his studies. He had never been a genius but he had managed to do well thanks to his father tutoring him for most of his life. However, he had stopped studying as soon as he had started to live alone. For his defense he had had other things in mind at the time, surviving for example. Still, he felt a bit ashamed at his abysmal academic abilities and dreaded the grade he was given on the science test. He didn't need his Hyper Intuition to know that his self-respect would considerably drop in a few minutes.

"Kondo."

"Yes."

The worse part of it all was that the teacher just so happened to be Nezu, a stuck-up self-proclaimed elite who liked to point out his students' stupidity. On top of that, Tsuna could feel Reborn's presence nearby which only added to his shame. The situation couldn't have been worse.

"Sawa."

"Y-Yes!" he squeaked, his nervousness causing him to jump when his name was called.

Instead of handing him the test paper as he had done with the other students, Nezu snickered. Tsuna gulped.

"This is just hypothetically speaking, but…" started the teacher in a tone that let one expect the worst. "let's just say there's a sole student that scores in the twenty point range and painfully lowers the class average…"

Tsuna could feel his cheeks for the sheer embarrassment caused by the teacher's implications.

"According to me, who's come through an elite course…" continued the man. "That kind of person will just be baggage and a burden on the education-conscious society."

…_You're a burden, it would be best if you disappeared…_

Tsuna lowered his head, letting his bangs cover his eyes.

"Is there a reason for that kind of trash to live?" finished Nezu, triumphant.

…_You're just trash. You don't deserve to live…_

Tsuna's hand was balled into a fist and was trembling slightly.

The teacher didn't seem to notice his student's strange state as he slammed the test paper with a circled red '26' at the top, on the boy's desk.

"Next, Suzuki." he said continuing to the next student.

Some of Tsuna's classmates who had seen his grade started snickering amongst themselves. The brown haired boy clenched his fist, to the point of nearly piercing the skin with his nails. He forced himself to ignore everything around him and calm down. He couldn't let himself be submerged by his demons. He couldn't show weakness.

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Gokudera Hayato**

From where he sat, Gokudera could see the boy's face darkening before it was hidden by his light brown bangs. His whole body was tensed and his hand was even trembling slightly. And by the whitening of his knuckles, the silver haired delinquent could tell the boy was clenching his hand tighter than he should. He wasn't entirely sure if he had seen it or if he had imagined it, but he thought he'd seen the boy's lips trembling slightly.

His hands itched to hit the teacher. Somehow, it reminded him of that time when he and Caelum had been kidnapped. The man who had caught them had said similar things to his smaller friend.

He didn't know exactly why the boy had been so deeply affected by the man's words, but he was aware of the boy's painful past. It was something he had been warned about even before he first met Caelum as a child. His caretaker at the time had informed him of the boy's circumstances and though he hadn't given any details, he had said the boy had suffered a great deal during his early childhood. It didn't show usually. Caelum had an unrivaled ability to appear well and cheerful no matter the circumstances. But sometimes, there would be signs, like the longing looks at mothers and their children or the palpable pain he sometimes let appear.

The silver haired teen clenched his teeth, forcing his eyes away from the frail figure of the brunet next to him. He hated not being able to help. He felt like he was betraying Caelum.

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Kurokawa Hana**

Kurokawa Hana might be smart and she might look down on the monkeys that made up more than half of the class, but what she disliked even more than those monkeys was unfairness. And she felt that proclaiming Sawa's uselessness in front of the entire class was unfair.

She glanced at said boy, quickly noticing how tense he was.

Nezu really had gone too far this time. Saying things like 'is there a reason why you deserve to live?'. That was just wrong. Especially since Sawa was just one of the many idiots in the class. Yet, he was the only who was constantly picked on by the science teacher. The popular baseball-monkey was an idiot he if she ever saw one and he somehow escaped the teacher's snarky comments. No, the more she thought about it, the more she disliked the man's attitude. She didn't care that he was elite. Some things were just not done!

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, after school, Sawa Tsunayoshi**

The brunet was sitting on a random desk, next to a window. The classes had ended a long time ago and the classroom was subsequently empty.

Outside, the sky was slowly turning to pink as the sun gradually disappeared behind the faraway buildings. A lump had settled in Tsuna's throat since that morning and now that he was alone he could feel the tears threatening to fall. But in all his stubbornness, he refused to show weakness and cry. He wouldn't show weakness; that was what he had been taught. Anyway, it was useless to cry when the person who would console him wasn't there.

He shook his head and took a deep breath before starting singing.

'_When the days are cold_

_And the cards all fold_

_And the saints we see_

_Are all made of gold'_

His voice was nothing special but he liked singing. He felt as if he was shouting his feelings to the world in a subtle manner. He liked it.

'_When your dreams all fail_

_And the ones we hail_

_Are the worst of all_

_And the blood's run stale'_

For a moment he could forget about the bad things and just sing it all out.

'_I wanna hide the truth_

_I wanna shelter you_

_But with the beast inside_

_There's nowhere we can hide'_

He especially liked this song (_Demons _– Imagine Dragons). It illustrated well what he had been feeling for a few years now.

'_No matter what we breed_

_We still are made of greed_

_This is my kingdom come_

_This is my kingdom come'_

He was greedy. And selfish. And he didn't deserve what he had. He shouldn't hope for more. But he was greedy. And he wanted more.

'_When you feel my heat_

_Look into my eyes_

_It's where my demons hide_

_It's where my demons hide_

_Don't get too close_

_It's dark inside_

_It's where my demons hide_

_It's where my demons hide'_

He wanted to go back to how it was before. But he knew it was impossible. Things would be different no matter what. And the demons that lurked made sure he didn't forget that.

'_At the curtain's call_

_It's the last of all_

_When the lights fade out_

_All the sinners crawl_

_So they dug your grave_

_And the masquerade_

_Will come calling out_

_At the mess you made_

_Don't wanna let you down'_

He didn't want to let him down, yet he already had. If he could see him now, he wouldn't be proud.

'_But I am hell bound_

_Though this is all for you_

_Don't wanna hide the truth'_

He didn't want to hurt him. But at the same time, he didn't want to keep secrets anymore. He wanted to tell him everything, let it all out, even though he knew how much it would hurt him…

'_No matter what we breed_

_We still are made of greed_

_This is my kingdom come_

_This is my kingdom come_

_When you feel my heat_

_Look into my eyes_

_It's where my demons hide_

_It's where my demons hide_

_Don't get too close_

_It's dark inside_

_It's where my demons hide_

_It's where my demons hide'_

…And that just turned into yet another demon that ate him from the inside.

'_They say it's what you make  
I say it's up to fate  
It's woven in my soul  
I need to let you go'_

If only he could…

'_Your eyes, they shine so bright_

_I wanna save that light_

_I can't escape this now_

_Unless you show me how_

_When you feel my heat_

_Look into my eyes_

_It's where my demons hide_

_It's where my demons hide_

_Don't get too close_

_It's dark inside_

_It's where my demons hide_

_It's where my demons hide'_

He ended the song softly, his eyes dry as he watched the blood red sky.

"That's a nice song."

Tsuna jumped at the voice sounded from the other side of the classroom. He turned quickly, gaping at the dark-haired girl standing in the doorway.

"Ku-kurokawa-_san_?" he spluttered, blushing as he realized what the comment implied: she had heard him sing.

Slowly he recovered from the shock of not having felt the girl enter the room. He still had a long way to go if someone could surprise him so easily.

"Th-thank you." he said quietly, finally registering what the girl had said.

The long haired girl just nodded in acknowledgment. She made her way to her own desk and took her bag which had been left on the chair. That done, she made to leave.

"Wait!" said Tsuna as she grabbed the door.

She turned to look at him questioningly. The boy fidgeted under her scrutinizing gaze. He wasn't sure why he had called her back but he felt there was something he should do.

"Um….um…" he said trying to find what it was that he wanted to say.

The girl was growing impatient.

"Listen, if you're going to say something then just say it. Otherwise I'll leave." she snapped.

"Y-yes!" replied Tsuna automatically feeling as if he was facing a teacher. "Would you tutor me?" he added quickly.

The girl looked taken aback by his request. She was at least as shocked as he was.

"Erm…erm…that is…" he mumbled feeling uncomfortable.

"All right." agreed the girl, surprising the both of them if the look on her face was any indication.

"R-really?"

"Yes. I thought it was really unfair how Nezu treated you this morning, so I guess helping you get better grades is a way to get back at him." she explained dismissively.

"Th-Thank you, Kurokawa-_san_!"

"However," she continued sternly. "I'm expecting you to work hard and do the exercises I give you."

The boy gulped at the threatening aura emanating from the girl and nodded hurriedly.

"The lessons will be every day after class for one hour, don't be late."

She turned on her heels.

"See you tomorrow."

"Y-yes. S-see you tomorrow, Kurokawa-_san_." answered the boy who still couldn't quite believe he had managed to find a tutor.

A bright smile slowly made its way to the brunet's lips. He had been given a chance to get better and he would make sure to take it.

The last ray of sunshine came to envelope his back and he turned around to watch it slowly disappear. Somehow the last ray of sunlight seemed brighter than any other, as if it was a promise…


	7. Memories of our loved ones

**Namimori Middle School, Sawada Ienari**

Nari sighed heavily as he took a broom out of the closet reserved for cleaning equipment. When Gokudera Hayato had enthusiastically announced that morning that he was going to replenish his stock of dynamite, the young mafia boss in training had thought it would be a quiet day. The bomber who, taking no notice of his refusal to let him become his subordinate, had recently appointed himself as his bodyguard was extremely loud and it had been a relief for the blonde boy when he had learnt he would be gone for the day. Yet here he was stuck sweeping the field by himself after PE class. Someone up there must hate him.

He was surprised to hear approaching footsteps and for a moment he dared hope the teacher was coming to tell him he could go home. He turned around.

"Help has arrived!" called Yamamoto Takeshi, carrying a broom on his shoulders.

"Yamamoto?!" he exclaimed bewildered.

Even though he and the baseball player had similar profiles (good in sports and generally popular but abysmal grades) they weren't exactly friends. It wasn't that they didn't get along or anything. They just didn't hang out together. Their groups of friends were different too.

"Thanks for helping me." he said gratefully as the dark haired boy started sweeping alongside him.

"Don't worry about it." replied the taller boy. "Truth is I wanted to talk to you about something."

Ienari glanced at his classmate, visibly surprised.

"Well, more like ask for advice really." corrected the baseball player after thinking for a moment.

The raven haired boy's jovial expression turned into a depressed one.

"Lately no matter how much I practice baseball my average keeps dropping and my fielding is screwing up. At this rate I won't even be a starter. Nari, what should I do?"

The blonde stayed speechless for a moment. He might be popular but no one had ever asked him for advice, especially not someone who was as talented as Yamamoto.

"Well…" he started racking his brain to find something sensible to say. "I guess, the only thing you can do is keep training. Your efforts are bound to be rewarded, right?"

He glanced at the taller boy feeling extremely uncertain.

"Yeah!" exclaimed Yamamoto sounding more like his usual self. "You know, I thought that was it too!"

The baseball player placed an arm around Nari's neck, grinning broadly.

"Alright! Today I'm staying here and practicing like hell!"

The two boys then finished sweeping, talking amicably as they worked. Once they were done, they parted ways. Nari was going home while Yamamoto was going back on the field to train.

From a second-floor window a pair of brown eyes watched the two boys part. The gaze turned thoughtful as he followed Yamomoto's silhouette. A whack to his head made him turn away from the window.

"Sawa! If you're not going to pay attention, I'll stop helping you!" snapped Kurokawa Hana at the brunet sitting opposite her.

"S-sorry, Kurokawa-_san_. I'll pay attention." said the boy hurriedly, going back to his exercises.

Kurokawa could scary when she wanted to.

* * *

**The following day, Namimori Middle School, Roof, Sawa Tsunayoshi**

Loyal to what was quickly becoming a tradition, Tsuna had left the classroom for lunch break and gone to the roof. He had already eaten his _bento_ and was now standing next to the railing, looking at the city down below. The door's creaking announced a visitor and that, thought Tsuna, was also becoming customary.

He was surprised to see that it wasn't Hibari Kyouya but Yamamoto Takeshi who had stepped onto the roof. The boy looked equally surprised to see him but quickly went back to looking somber and depressed. Tsuna noticed that the boy's arm was in a sling. There seemed to be something wrong with the boy and the emptiness in his eyes told Tsuna what his aim in coming here might be.

"What are you doing here, Sawa?" asked the baseball player, sounding harsher than he meant to be.

The brunet took no offense at the tone employed (partly because he was used to it) and smiled at the newcomer.

"I often come to the roof. When I stand next to the railing I feel somewhat closer to the sky and the sun." he confided, turning back towards said railing. "It's like I'm already half-floating in the sky, it's exhilarating."

While he was talking, Yamamoto had come to stand next to him and was looking curiously at the emptiness beyond the railing.

"Sometimes, I think it would be so much easier to actually jump. I'd fly for a moment and fall asleep forever. It would only hurt for an instant and then I would forget what pain even was." he lifted his eyes towards the sky. "But you know, if I did that…"

He choked on the words, his eyes turning to infinite sadness. Catching his breath and doing his best to ignore Yamamoto's concerned expression, he continued.

"If I did that, I'd never be able to see my dad again. And I…" he fought back the tears. "I can't do it. In the end, I still want to be with _Papa_, no matter how painful life gets."

He paused and looked into the baseball players eyes. He could see understanding in the boy's eyes and he was glad that he had managed to remind the boy of what was important.

"Isn't it the same for you Yamamoto-_san_?" he asked smiling, with just a hint of sadness. "Isn't your father very important?"

"Yeah…Yeah he is." replied the dark haired boy.

Silence fell between the two of them as they continued gazing into the distance.

"Thanks Sawa." murmured Yamamoto after a while.

"You're welcome." replied the brunet sounding a lot more cheerful than before.

The baseball player smiled at him before turning on his heels and walking towards the door. He stopped just before he reached it.

"Hey, Sawa…Your father…" Yamamoto seemed unsure of how to ask his question and fidgeted.

The brunet, who had turned around, smiled at him, the shadows created by his bangs hiding the rest of his face.

"Right now, we can't live together anymore. But I'm sure one day we will be able to."

Yamamoto's eyes widened at the confession, he hadn't expected the brunet to trust him enough to answer the question he had meant to ask. Not trusting himself to speak, he nodded once before leaving the roof. As he walked down the stairs towards the classroom, he thought about how foolish he had been to even think about dying. Sawa had obviously had a much harder life and he wasn't jumping, was he? He had been an idiot.

Back on the roof, Tsuna fell back against the railing. Now he had done it. He had talked too much. Reborn hadn't been around at least.

A lone tear rolled down his cheek as he took out his small metallic case.

"One day, for sure." he promised softly as he caressed the photo.

He leaned more heavily against the railing, wiping the tear away and placing the flat box back into his pocket. He realized a second later that this had been a mistake as the wire fence suddenly gave way behind him, causing him to fall back into emptieness. His eyes widened as he lost his footing. He squeezed them shut, preparing for the long and lethal fall, when a strong hand gripped his wrist and pulled him back to safety. Tsuna found himself falling the other way. He collided with his savior and both boys fell to the floor.

The brunet opened his eyes again to look at a white shirt. He lifted his head up and came face to face with a raven haired boy whose bangs fell between his silver eyes, narrowed into a ferocious glare.

"Hi-Hibari-_san_?" he squeaked disbelievingly.

He suddenly noticed that he was lying on the Prefect, his face an inch away from the other boy's. Slightly panicky, he hurriedly rolled off his upperclassman, letting him sit up. The raven haired boy didn't comment. He simply got up, dusted his clothes and walked away.

"Ah, Hibari-_san_!" called Tsuna getting to his feet as well. "Thank you for saving me." he told the Prefect who had paused to hear what he had to say.

"Hn." replied the taller boy before leaving the roof.

* * *

**Meanwhile, Yamamoto Takeshi and Sawada Ienari**

When Yamamoto entered the classroom, he was immediately joined by Nari.

"Hey, Yamamoto, how are you feeling?" asked the blonde with a worried expression. "I heard you broke your arm while training yesterday…" he trailed off.

"No worried I'm fine!" reassured the baseball player with a wide grin. "Well I won't be playing for a while, but well…I guess I'm just going to have to take a break. It's no big deal."

His blonde classmate looked immensely relieved by the announcement.

"Yeah, a break might do you good, too." he said, nodding enthusiastically. "There's nothing like a change of pace from time to time!"

Yamamoto slapped the other boy's back with his remaining arm while laughing.

"Exactly! I'll rest and come back even stronger!"

The two boys continued chatting eagerly until the bell rang, announcing the start of the afternoon classes. They left for their respective seats, with a promise to hang out after school that evening.

As he sat down, Ienari felt that he had finally gained a true friend. Reborn who had seen the whole scene from outside the window was more thinking along the lines of 'family member acquired' but the blonde mafia boss in training didn't know that. Not yet, at least…

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Tsuna and Kurokawa Hana**

"Did something good happen to you today?" asked the dark haired girl as she looked at the smiling brunet sitting opposite her.

The boy looked up from his exercise sheets.

"No, not really." he said cheerfully.

She narrowed her eyes, visibly not believing his words. She decided to drop the subject anyway.

"Where do you usually eat lunch?" she asked in a business-like tone.

"Eh?" the brunet blinked a few times apparently surprised by the sudden question. "The roof but…"

The raven haired girl cut him off with a nod.

"Then tomorrow, me and Kyoko will come to eat with you." she announced. "You have no complaints, right?"

The tone sounded somewhat threatening and Tsuna found himself gulping apprehensively as he hurriedly shook his head.

"Erm…"

"What?" snapped the girl, annoyed by the boy's indecisiveness.

"I'd rather you called me Tsuna instead of Sawa." said the boy tentatively, looking away from his tutor's narrowed eyes.

"Fine. but I have one condition." brown eyes flickered back to the girl. "You have to call me by name as well. Got it?"

The teen looked immensely relieved as he nodded his head hastily.


	8. Reborn's rival

**Reply to Archenemy's review****: **_**I did a small research after reading your review and found no 'More than good' fic so I'm assuming you meant 'More than no good' which I read and liked. To answer your question, no I am not trying to copy this fic nor any other. I might be inspired by other fics but I am not aiming to copy them. I write my chapters on my own and I don't read other fics while writing, so if there is a resemblance it is by luck, or at least it is unintentional.**_

_**Seeing as there are nicer ways to put it, I took your question as an insult but since I'm not someone who likes wasting time on brainless people I'm not going to engage in a verbal war with you. I'll simply say that if you don't improve the quality of your reviews, they will not be accepted anymore. Also if you find my fic so fake, then I must remind you that you are under no obligation to read it.**_

_**If your intentions were not to insult me, then I apologize for jumping to conclusions and advise you to write in a way that will not cause misunderstandings in the future.**_

* * *

**I apologize to my other readers for this interruption and I would like to take this opportunity to ask all of you if I should make Ienari and the future guardians appear more. I've already written a few chapters in advance and I have noticed that they more or less disappear for a while as the action is centered on Tsuna. Of course they don't disappear forever but I would like to know if you think I've been neglecting them.**

**Thanks for all the reviews and support I have received!**

* * *

**Namimori, Sawada Household, Sawada Ienari**

The Sawada family plus one, were gathered in the dining room for breakfast. Ienari was wolfing down his meal, Reborn was elegantly sipping his espresso and Nana was reading a leaflet.

"It seems there's a major promotion at the supermarket today." she said lightly. "It's a pity I can't go. I already promised Meiko-_chan _I would go and have tea with her."

The hitman had momentarily stopped drinking his coffee to look up at the brown haired woman, his expression unreadable. The woman seemed to notice the baby's scrutiny as she looked up to meet the beady black eyes. When their gazes met she smiled sweetly at the infant.

"Maa, it doesn't really matter." she said, putting the leaflet away.

Despite her cheerful front, Reborn could see the hint of regret in her eyes as she put the paper in one of the drawers. The infant glanced at his student who was visibly ignoring his mother. Reborn smirked.

"Don't worry, Mamma. Baka-Nari will go shopping for you." he said taking a sip of his espresso.

This seemed to catch the blonde's attention as he looked up at Reborn with bewilderment.

"WHAT?! I don't have time to lose with shop…"

With a murderous glare, Reborn made his student shut up.

"You'll do it right, Baka-Nari?" he asked, the unspoken threat clear.

The blonde gulped and nodded hastily. Nana clapped her hands together happily.

"Ara, that's so nice of you Na-kun!" she exclaimed brightly. "I'll leave it to you, then."

The suit-wearing baby smirked as he watched Nari shrink back and mumble under his breath. It was about time that boy started helping his mother a little. Reborn had had more than enough of his attitude. Especially since Nana was the kindest and sweetest person he had ever met. Or maybe not…He had a feeling he had met someone exceptionally kind once. Luce, maybe?

He shrugged the thought away. It didn't matter. With this he had gained a free evening. An Ienari-free evening, in fact.

* * *

_**After classes**_**, streets, Sawa Tsunayoshi**

Tsuna was heading home as Hana had cancelled their evening class, saying something important had come up. He had therefore waved the girl goodbye as she left in a hurry before following her out of the school at a slower pace. The announcement had put him in a good mood. Not that he disliked Hana's lessons, though he did dislike studying in general, but having a day off was always welcomed. Unfortunately, it seemed that he was not to enjoy that evening as much as he had first thought.

As soon as he passed the school gates, he detected the presence that seemed to follow him. He quickly guessed who it was. There was only one person he knew who would stalk him on his way home. Incidentally, he happened to not want that person to know where he lived. He walked slowly, trying to decide what he should do. He finally decided he would make a detour. That way, his stalker might get bored and leave (though deep down he realized that was probably just wishful thinking).

He decided that his first stop would be the supermarket. He remembered there was a special promotion today, and to poor people like him, promotions were a divine gift. He had first though he wouldn't be able to go since he had his lesson but now that he was free he had no reason not to go. His decision taken he set off towards the local supermarket.

As expected, it was very busy, though he would hazard the guess that it had been busier during the afternoon when all the housewives would have come to do their shopping. As a result there wasn't much left either. But Tsuna had the advantage of not needing much in the first place. He lived alone after all.

He stepped out of the supermarket about half an hour later. For a few minutes, he thought that his stalker might have left as he couldn't feel his presence. His hopes were quickly crushed by the reappearance of said presence. Sighing he decided he might as well head home. If he had followed him this far he probably wouldn't give up. Not to mention it would be suspicious to go anywhere with that many shopping bags. Plus, he had milk that needed to be put into the fridge.

The brunet made his way back slowly, as he still had the faint hope that his stalker would leave before he reached his home. It wouldn't look too weird for him to walk slowly as he was carrying quite a few heavy bags. People would assume that the weight was slowing him down.

Luck didn't seem to be on his side that day, because the stalker hadn't faltered when he arrived at the modest building in which he lived. He climbed the outdoor staircase up to the second floor. He walked over to the last door and carefully placed his bags on the floor to look for his keys. Once he had found them he unlocked the door and carried everything inside.

His apartment was rather small. There was a sitting room, which he used as both sitting and dining room, with a small kitchen on the side. A door at the back of the room led to a small corridor from which one could get to the bedroom on the left and the bathroom on the right. It wasn't much but it was cheap and good enough for a lone boy.

He unloaded his bags and put everything away in the few cupboards that made up his kitchen and into the small fridge. It had barely been five minutes since he had entered his home when the doorbell rang as he expected it would. He sighed and straightened himself, closing the fridge in which he had just placed the milk and the eggs. In a few strides he got to the door. He took a moment to apply a curious expression on his face before opening the door.

"Ciaossu." said the baby standing on his doorstep.

"Reborn!" exclaimed Tsuna in fake surprise. "What are you doing here? Isn't Sawada-_kun _with you?" he asked looking around, seemingly looking for a sign of the blonde boy.

"He's shopping for Mamma." said the baby, walking past Tsuna and entering the small room.

Trying to ignore the fact that the baby had just invited himself inside, the brunet closed the door and followed the baby inside.

"Would you like something to drink?" he enquired motioning to the baby to sit on one of the cushions around the low table.

"Espresso." replied the baby.

Of course. How dumb of him to ask.

Again he acted as if it wasn't strange for an infant to ask for black coffee and got started on the drink.

"So what are you doing here, Reborn?" he asked once more, genuinely curious as to why the baby was here instead of being with Ienari.

"Since Kurokawa Hana can't tutor tonight, I'm replacing her." announced the suit-wearing kid.

Tsuna sweat-dropped. He would be ready to bet an arm Reborn had had something to do with Kurokawa's urgent business.

"E-Eeeeeeh…." he said dragging the sound, showing his disbelief. "W-well that's very kind of you, Reborn." he said at last, carrying the cup of coffee to the table.

He placed the cup in front of the baby and went to retrieve his school bag.

"Well, I'll just do my homework and you can look it over." he suggested as if he was indulging into a child's game.

Reborn said nothing but started sipping his coffee. Tsuna took out his school work and got started on the exercises. He had math that night, which was easily his worse subject. If he had an affinity with languages, he simply couldn't understand numbers. As he was racking his brain over a particularly hard problem and started writing an answer, Leon transformed into a hammer which reborn used to hit Tsuna on the head.

"_Baka_. That answer is wrong _Dame-_Tsuna." said the baby.

"There's no need to hit me…" mumbled the boy, looking sideways.

He gaped as what he saw through the window. A kid wearing a cow disguise was perched on a tree's branch and was pointing a gun at them. Tsuna hurriedly went to open the window so that the window at least would be saved.

"Die Reborn!" exclaimed the cow preparing to pull the trigger.

"First, the target will be this number." said Reborn continuing with his lesson as if nothing had happened.

"Reborn, there's a weird kid outside." said Tsuna sounding a little frantic.

"Take that!" shouted the kid and pressed the trigger.

A click sounded but no bullet shot out of the gun. The brat looked surprised but soon started recharging the weapon. While he was busy doing this, the branch started cracking sinisterly. Under Tsuna's bemused gaze, the branch gave way under the boy's weight and the both of them fell. The brunet hurried to the window, intent on checking on the cow-child.

"To-le-rate." muttered the kid on the ground, tears already streaming down his face.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Tsuna turned back to Reborn who hadn't bothered acknowledging the boy's presence. He was about to tell the infant off for ignoring the other but was stopped by the doorbell. Sighing he went to open the door. As soon as he did, the cow-kid rushed inside.

"Gahahah! Success!" he laughed as he entered the room. "Long time no see, Reborn! It's me Lambo."

"R-Reborn, do you know him?" asked Tsuna, unsure of what he was supposed to do in case of cow invasion.

"Remember this formula." said the baby hitman pointing to a complex line of numbers.

"Eh?"

"Hey, don't ignore me! I'll kill you dammit!" yelled the kid rushing forward holding a knife.

Without looking, Reborn made a gesture similar to swatting a mosquito away, except much stronger since it sent Lambo crashing into the wall.

"A-are you okay?" asked Tsuna, sweat-dropping at Reborn's violence.

"Oh…That hurts…I must have tripped on something…" muttered the kid as he slowly got up.

He sat with tears flowing freely down his chubby cheeks.

"I, Lambo-san, five years old, from Italy, a hitman from the Bovino Famiglia, tripped!" he announced loudly while crying. "Favorite foods are grape and candy, and I, Lambo-san, who first met Reborn in a bar, tripped!"

Tsuna didn't know what to say as he watched the kid who was apparently trying to introduce himself while crying his eyes out.

"With that formula, solve this." said Reborn, completely ignoring the other hitman.

Tsuna glanced from Reborn to Lambo, wondering if he should help the boy. When he glanced back at the fedora-wearing baby, he gulped. Gun-Leon was pointed threateningly at him.

"Uh, yeah."

He bent down on his exercise book, watching Lambo out of the corner of his eye.

"Ara, what's this?" asked Lambo in a sing-song voice rummaging in his black afro.

"A-A HAND GRENADE!" shrieked Tsuna as he caught sight of the pink weapon Lambo had just taken out. "W-Wait Lambo! Don't throw this here! Reborn's just being mean!"

The cow-kid looked suddenly relieved that someone was finally paying attention to him.

"Reborn! You know him, right? Be nice to him!" said Tsuna angrily turning to the infant.

"I don't know him." replied the hitman. "Either way if it's the Bovino Famiglia, they're a rather small group. I don't associate with people who rank lower than me."

Tsuna felt a sudden wave of inexplicable anger wash over him and he lowered his head, letting his bangs cover his eyes. His fist resting on the table was trembling slightly.

"Then…THEN WHY THE HELL ARE YOU ASSOCIATING WITH ME?!" he yelled suddenly, looking up, revealing his features twisted in anger.

He quickly turned away from the hitman, letting his bangs cover his face once again.

"Come on Lambo." he said gently, as he picked the boy up. "I'll give you some candy. You like those, right?"

Lambo just nodded, seemingly understanding that the nice boy carrying him was feeling sad. Reborn watched them leave, tilting his fedora to hide his black eyes from view.


	9. Sleepover: Mafia Style

**This chapter is the shortest I've ever written and I apologize for that but since it's a bit of a part 2 of the last chapter it couldn't really be helped. I hope you'll enjoy it all the same.**

**Also thanks a lot for all those encouragements I've received, I didn't take Archenemy's review to heart really but it was comforting anyway to have so positive reviews. **

* * *

_Previous chapter:_

"_Then…THEN WHY THE HELL ARE YOU ASSOCIATING WITH ME?" he yelled suddenly looking up, revealing features twisted in anger._

_He quickly turned away from the hitman, letting his bangs cover his face once again._

"_Come on Lambo." he said gently, as he picked the boy up. "I'll give you some candy. You like those, right?"_

_Lambo just nodded, seemingly understanding that the nice boy carrying him was feeling sad. Reborn watched the leave, tilting his fedora to hide his black eyes from view._

* * *

**Sawa Tsunayoshi's Apartment, Reborn**

Reborn heard a door slam. He assumed it was Tsuna's bedroom's door. He gritted his teeth, cursing the brunet under his breath. Why did he have to get upset? It wasn't like Reborn had been talking about him. He hadn't said anything wrong. It was _Dame_-Tsuna who was in the wrong.

So then, why was he feeling so much guilt? For a moment, when Tsuna had yelled at him, he had caught a glimpse of the boy's eyes. Instead of their usual dull brown, they had been a bright orange. Not only that, they had reflected such sadness, such pain…His heart squeezed as he recalled the boy's look. Maybe, just maybe he had been a little wrong. Still, it didn't warrant such a strong reaction. It was as if the boy had been personally insulted, which he hadn't been. The boy wasn't even in the mafia so there was no question of rank for him. Plus, it wasn't like they were friends or anything. Sure he enjoyed the kid's company, but that didn't mean he was less violent with him than with others…Okay, maybe he was a bit softer with the brunet. But the boy wasn't his student nor did he work with him. He didn't have any reason to hit him as much as the others.

Anyway, why this strong reaction? Reborn didn't know the answer to that question and it annoyed him to no end.

This boy, Tsuna, kept surprising him. There was something mysterious about him. As if he was keeping some big secret. But at the same time, he was _Dame_-Tsuna: bad at everything, clumsy, plain-looking, shy, dull. There was nothing interesting about him, he was easy to understand. And at the same time, Reborn felt like he was looking at a blurry photo. He could see the general outline but not the details. It was annoying.

Getting to his feet, Reborn walked towards the bedroom, determined to make the boy see some sense.

* * *

**Sawa Tsunayoshi's Apartment, Tsuna and Lambo**

"I'm pretty sure I had some grape candy around here…" said Tsuna as he fumbled in his wardrobe.

He had sat Lambo on his bed and was looking for the promised candy. The cow-patterned kid was looking around silently, strangely well-behaved.

"Found it!" exclaimed the brunet as he took out a purple bag.

He went to sit on the bed next to Lambo and ripped the bag open.

"Here you go." he said presenting it to the child.

With a squeal of delight the kid grabbed a handful of candy and put in his mouth. Tsuna chuckled as he watched the child stuff his face with sweets.

"Your name is Lambo, right? I'm Tsuna." said the brunet conversationally as he started petting the boy's head. "Lambo, how did you meet Reborn?"

The kid looked up, his green eyes finding Tsuna's brown gaze.

"Lambo-_san_'s Boss had decided to bring Lambo-_san_ to the bar for the first time." started the child. "Lambo-_san_ sat at the counter with Reborn. We talked a lot. Reborn was blowing bubbles out of his nose and Lambo-_san_ was eating candy…"

_He was sleeping_, realized Tsuna, hearing about Reborn's bubble-blowing.

"Later, Boss told Lambo-_san_ to kill Reborn." said Lambo eating yet another candy.

Tsuna frowned. Telling a five-year old to kill the world's number one hitman, wasn't that the same as telling him to go and get killed?

"Lambo, do you have a family?" asked the brunet worriedly.

"The Bovino is Lambo-_san_'s family." replied Lambo. "What about Tsuna?"

The brunet froze, momentarily stopping his petting.

"W-well…I…" his hand started moving again slowly. "I used to have a Dad, but he doesn't know me anymore. So I guess I don't have a family, now." he ended with a humorless chuckle.

"Jaaa," said Lambo looking at him excitedly. "Tsuna can be in Lambo-_san_'s family!"

Tsuna smiled adoringly at the child.

"Thank you, Lambo." he said hugging the small boy.

At that moment, the door swung open. Reborn entered the room, raising his gun.

"You look like you're having fun." he said darkly, preparing to shoot.

"Re-Reborn!" squeaked Tsuna, hurriedly moving in between the gun and Lambo.

For some unfathomable reason, the fedora-wearing killer lowered his gun, settling for an annoyed click of his tongue. He turned away preparing to leave but froze in his tracks when he heard Lambo's words.

"Ano ne, Tsuna. Since we're family, I'm going to live here now." announced the cow-kid causing the brunet to sweatdrop.

Surely he hadn't been planning that from the start, right?

A chill suddenly ran down his back and he glanced at Reborn from who seemed to be emanating a dark aura.

"Oi, _Dame_-Tsuna." said the suit-wearing baby. "It's too late for me to go home so I'll be spending the night here."

"HIEEEEE?!"

* * *

_**Later that evening**_

"All right, now be careful, it's hot." warned Tsuna as he presented the children with a plate of curry each.

They were all sitting around the low table for dinner.

After much deliberation and fighting between the two kids, Tsuna had decided to cook curry for the night's dinner. Cooking with both Lambo and Reborn in the house had been quite an ordeal but he had managed somehow. In between trying to stop them from using weapons inside the house and blowing everything up…

He served a plate for himself and sat down to eat. He raised his spoon to his lips, blowing on the food to cool it down, keeping watch on the two children. He kept an eye on Lambo as he was worried that the child wouldn't listen to him and burn himself.

The reason why he watched Reborn was rather different though. Out of the corner of his eye, he was watching for the baby's reaction. Reborn was most likely used to delicious meals and he was a bit anxious about whether his curry tasted good or not. He lived alone after all, so he wouldn't know what his cooking was worth.

Unfortunately, Reborn's expression remained as blank as ever and he finally decided to ask.

"S-so…Is-is it good?" he asked, stuttering a little from nervousness.

"Lambo-_san_ loves Tsuna's cooking!" announced the cow-kid loudly.

"Thank you, Lambo." answered the brunet with a grateful smile.

The fedora-wearing hitman remained silent for a while.

"Not bad, _Dame_-Tsuna." he said after a while.

Tsuna gave him a dazzling smile and Reborn's lips did not quirk upwards. They didn't.

* * *

_**After dinner**_

"L-Lambo! Don't run around naked!" exclaimed Tsuna as he ran after the cow-kid.

They had just gotten out of the bath and Lambo who was very amused by the towels' fluffiness had decided to start running around covering himself with the white towel in an attempt to make himself look like a ghost.

"Reborn! Don't use your gun inside!" he shouted as he saw the infant pointing Gun-Leon at Lambo.

The hitman clicked his tongue but did as he was told. He had taken off his suit and fedora and was now wearing black silk pajamas, his spiky black hair left free. It was somewhat amazing that Reborn managed to look so elegant at all times even though he was just a baby, thought Tsuna as he glanced at the dark haired infant. He then looked at the other child.

Lambo had cow-print pajamas which Tsuna was currently forcing him into. He finally finished preparing the child for bed and shortly left to tidy the bathroom.

"Now, bed!" he said sternly as he re-entered the bedroom a minute later. "I've got school tomorrow and it's already late."

He climbed into his bed, closely followed by Lambo who nestled against him. It didn't last long though as Reborn arrived and kicked Lambo off the bed, stealing his place next to Tsuna.

"Reborn!" scolded the brunet, gently swatting the hitman's head. "Come on, Lambo, you can sleep on my other side."

The five-year old climbed onto the bed once more, trying to hold back his tears.

"To-le-rate." he said as he slid beneath the sheets on Tsuna's other side.

The brunet smiled and gave the boy's afro a gentle pat.

"Goodnight Lambo. Goodnight Reborn."

"Goodnight Tsuna." replied Lambo as he snuggled closer to the older boy.

Reborn didn't reply: he was already sleeping; his eyes wide open and a bubble blowing out of his nose.


	10. Death is such a sweet thing

**I'm having super duper important exams this week, so expect slow updates. I'll have a few next week as well, so you might have to wait until the week after that to get updates regularly. Anyway I'll try my best to keep writing and feed you hungry readers!**

**Thanks for the reviews!**

* * *

**Namimori, In the streets, Sawada Ienari**

The blonde boy had been asked to go and buy a few things his mother had forgotten to get when she had gone shopping. He was currently on his way back. He was sweating profusely because of the heat: it was already summer and the temperature gad gone up in the last few days.

"Aaah! It's so hot!" he groaned wiping some sweat of his brow with his arm. "And I'm so thirsty."

He really should have bought something to drink while he was at the shop. It wasn't like he didn't have the money for it. He sighed heavily.

At that moment, a bike's bell rang behind him. Out of habit, he turned around. A woman was riding a bike, wearing a helmet and gloves. Nari lifted an eyebrow. Now that was weird. It wasn't rare to see people riding bikes in Japan, but most people didn't wear a helmet let alone gloves. It wasn't like she was riding a motorbike…Rather, didn't she feel hot wearing those gloves?

The woman came to a stop a few feet away from him and took off her helmet, releasing long pink hair.

She was very pretty, thought Ienari as he watched the girl with more interest than before. She looked foreign, maybe she was half-japanese?

Further thoughts were interrupted by the woman as she threw a can of soda to him.

"Have this if you like." she said before cycling away.

Unluckily, Nari didn't react in time and the can fell to the ground. It opened and the liquid flowed out of it. The blonde muttered a curse as he bent down to pick up the can. As he did, he noticed the drink was somewhat purple…While he reflected on the beverage's weird color a crow that had been flying overhead dropped to the ground with a squawk. The blonde hurried away, leaving both drink and dead bird behind.

Apparently, pretty girls nowadays were very dangerous and not in the way he had first believed.

* * *

**Further away, Bianchi**

The pink haired woman had stopped further away, on the hill. From where she stood she could see the blonde boy to whom she had given the can of soda. Holding her binoculars to her eyes she watched her victim's actions like a hawk. She clicked her tongue when she saw he wasn't picking the can after he had dropped it. Stupid boy! His clumsiness had made her plan fail. Well she still had plan B…

She put away her binoculars, preparing to leave when she felt a familiar foreboding presence behind her. She turned around rapidly, clenching her hands into fists.

"Caelum." she said through gritted teeth, her grey eyes flashing with dislike.

* * *

**Namimori, Caelum and Bianchi**

"I see you still haven't gotten rid of your bad habit of trying to kill anyone who gets close to Reborn." remarked the teenage boy casually as he approached the pink haired woman.

He stopped once he was just a few feet away from her and smirked.

"Are you that desperate for his attention?" he asked.

The woman scowled, her beautiful features twisting into a scary expression.

"Caelum." she said, her tone threatening.

"Oh dear! Such a scary expression!" exclaimed Caelum mockingly taking a step back and raising his hands in front of him in defense.

"What do you want?" snapped the pink haired woman.

"What do I want?" echoed the teen. "Nothing much. Just thought we could have a chat. We haven't seen each other in a long time, after all." he answered smoothly.

This made the woman smirk as she saw an opening.

"Oh! That's right!" she exclaimed faking sweetness and clapping her hands as if she had just remembered something. "You haven't been able to be with Reborn for the last three years, have you?"

Caelum gave the woman's triumphant smile a sideway glance.

"Indeed." he said, his smile never faltering. "Then again, you haven't been by his side for the last two years, either." he added, wiping the smile of the woman's face. "At least, I don't act like a desperate love-sick puppy."

"Then why are you here?" asked the woman coldly, grey eyes narrowing into a glare.

The teen didn't reply immediately. He walked towards the edge of the platform they were standing on, the woman's eyes following him all the while.

"Well," he said slowly. "There are various reasons."

He looked up at the blue sky overhead, smiling sadly. The woman's eyes widened briefly and she looked down. Her expression softened into sympathy. Sometimes she hated herself for being so quick to leave her anger behind in presence of the boy.

"Have you been…okay?" she asked softly, her worried eyes settling on the boy's frail back.

The boy turned around. He was still smiling but it looked a bit strained.

"I'd like to say I'm fine but…" he looked away from the woman in front of him. "In all honesty, I can only say that I've been surviving."

"Caelum…"

"It's alright. I've already gotten used to the idea that I might…" he trailed off, eyes becoming distant.

"Caelum, if there's anything I can do…" said the woman, her fierce expression showing that she refused to accept his words.

The teen looked at her, showing a mildly surprised expression. At last, he smiled.

"You'd actually help me?" he asked teasingly. "Even though I'm your love rival?"

The woman flushed.

"Idiot! That has nothing to do with it! If you died, Reborn would…"

The boy's laugh cut her off. There was a hint of desperation in the way he laughed. Her heart squeezed as she realized the reason. Right now, if Caelum died Reborn wouldn't even notice.

"Bianchi, I'm teasing you!" he told her crossing the distance between them.

He raised his hand and ruffled her hair. The woman pouted, her cheeks still red.

"There's something wrong about the way you treat me like a child, even though I'm older than you are." she muttered.

The teen just laughed.

"Sure, whatever you say." he said as if agreeing to a kid's whim. "Thanks anyway, Bianchi."

The last words were said softly as he walked away. The pink haired girl watched him leave, sadness invading her eyes. Shaking her head she grabbed her bike and mounted it. As she cycled away she inwardly cursed the boy named Caelum for being so damn difficult to hate. She occupied her brain with the insults, trying to ignore the painful lump in her throat.

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Sawa Tsunayoshi**

Tsuna watched from the doorway as the girls who had just had home economics class presented their cooking to the boys. He hadn't joined them as he had spent most of the day in the nurse's office and had just come back. He watched with slight amusement as a pink haired woman slipped through the crowd and deftly replaced Sasagawa Kyoko's rice balls with another dish which looked a lot less appetizing.

No one, save Sawada Ienari, seemed to notice her and Tsuna couldn't help but chuckle at the face the blonde was pulling when the Kyoko offered him the purplish rice balls.

His amusement was cut short by a strong coughing fit, which left him trembling and grimacing. Clenching his fist, he turned away from the classroom and walked back to where he had just come from: the nurse's office.

He didn't get far before he was forced to stop by another coughing fit. This left him breathless and he had to lean against the wall for a little while to catch his breath. Once he felt steady enough, he continued walking towards his destination, his hand slipping into his pocket to grab the plastic box resting there.

He had to hold on a little while longer. Just a little longer.

* * *

**Sawada Household, Ienari, Reborn and Bianchi**

"Reborn!"

Ienari twitched as the crazy woman who had been trying to kill him all day long (her last attempt having been a poisonous pizza) entered his room and ran towards the hitman. She embraced him, cheeks flushed in happiness.

"Ciaossu, Bianchi." replied the suit-wearing infant.

"I've come to take you back, Reborn." said the woman releasing the baby. "Let's do another big job together."

"I already told you Bianchi." said Reborn with his usual blank expression. "I was given the job to raise _Baka_-Nari so I can't."

"My poor Reborn!" cooed the woman, with teary eyes. "Unless the tenth dies by some kind of accident, you won't be free."

"WHAT?!" yelled the blonde boy who had been watching the scene, while twitching uncontrollably.

"But don't worry! I'll make sure to send him to the other world." she promised while looking at the infant lovingly.

"You can't do that either." said the infant. "If he dies it'll reflect badly on me."

"Stop talking as if I wasn't there. And what the hell is with you, Reborn?" snapped Ienari. "What do you mean by 'it'll reflect badly on me'? Shouldn't you be more concerned about me?"

The baby seemed to finally deem his student worthy of his attention and turned towards him.

"No, not really." he replied, the picture of innocence.

The blonde teen was preparing to yell at his tutor when his mother called them for dinner. With a glare at Reborn, the boy left the room, slamming the door behind him.

The pink haired woman, who had grabbed Reborn and placed him on her knees at some point, watched the boy leave with obvious disinterest. Seeing her beloved Reborn had reminded her of the conversation she had had that morning with another teenager. She was so deep in thoughts that she didn't even react upon the fact that she was in a room alone with her love interest.

She was called back to reality when the baby wiggled free of her embrace and walked towards the door.

"We should go as well, Bianchi." said the hitman.

"Ah! Reborn!" called the pink haired woman without thinking.

The hitman turned towards her.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Do you…do you remember someone called Caelum?" she asked hesitantly.

The fedora-wearing infant looked at her blankly for a moment.

"I don't know anyone like that." he answered at last before leaving the room.

"I see." said the young woman to the empty room. "So you really don't remember then." she added barely above a whisper.

After a moment, she got to her feet. She forced herself to regain some composure, swallowing back the unshed tears, before heading downstairs for dinner.

But no matter how many times she told herself that Caelum's issues had nothing to do with her, she couldn't get rid of the lump in her throat.


	11. The clock is ticking

**As always, thanks for your reviews! They are very encouraging and I hope you will continue writing them.**

**This will be the last chapter this week as I won't be near my computer this week-end. I will be back next week, of course, with new chapters. But don't expect anything tomorrow or the day after.**

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Nurse's office, Shamal**

Doctor Shamal was a well-known hitman who went by the name 'Trident Shamal', who was also renowned for his skills as a doctor. Some would argue that what he was really known for was the fact that he only treated woman but that was a detail. The point was that, he, Trident Shamal, a handsome dark haired middle-aged man was the new nurse of Namimori Middle School. This decision had nothing to do with the large number of young females wearing short skirts, of course not. He had agreed to take the position so that he would be able to keep an eye on the tenth boss of Vongola's health and for other private reasons.

This reflected the man as he finished putting away his belongings in his new office, was the sole reason for his coming to the school. Really, it had nothing to do with the school girls. Nothing.

Though, it was a nice addition. After all, he had decided to study medicine so that he could examine women thoroughly. And he wouldn't deny that examining teenage girls was a lot more exciting than examining elderly grandmothers.

But that was not the reason he had come to Japan. No. He had come after being called by Reborn (though he had already been on his way there before he got the call, for his own personal reasons). The hitman had asked him to heal his student who had gotten the Skull Disease after being shot with the Dying Will Bullet one too many times. He had been tempted to refuse. In fact, he had refused. It wasn't just because the tenth was a boy, even he wasn't that irresponsible. No. It had to do with the fact that he didn't like the boy as a person, didn't like the boy's father and that Reborn wasn't entirely in his good graces anymore. All in all, the boy just associated with the wrong people.

When he thought about it, it was all because of one person. The same person for whom he had come all the way from Italy to Japan, in a hurry. Even his becoming a nurse in the school was for that idiot. Sometimes the doctor asked himself why he went to such pains for the boy. Because that was the whole point wasn't it? He was a boy. And Shamal usually didn't treat boys. The only exception had been his student, Gokudera Hayato and even then it was only when the boy's injuries were life-threatening. Compared to that, there was no particular reason for him to care about the boy named Caelum.

He was just another boy with exceptional bad luck. One who had been born in the wrong family with the wrong body. One who seemed to be hated by fate.

He supposed he had just taken pity on the boy. It was a fact that the boy had had the worse happen to him repeatedly and he still wasn't at the end of the tunnel. Maybe he had gotten attached because of the boy's kindness, or was it his smile? He didn't know.

Whatever it was, it didn't really matter. In the end it wouldn't change the fact that Caelum was one of the rare people, males, who had managed to worm their way into the doctor's heart. Which was precisely why, he was now standing in the nurse's office, lab coat on, waiting for the first patient to come and maybe a small part of himself was waiting for the moment Caelum would enter the office. And he could only pray that when he did, it would be with a smile.

* * *

**Namimori, streets, Ienari and Reborn**

Sawada Ienari was walking to school, and just like every morning since he had arrived, Reborn was walking on the houses' fences. It seemed the baby like to be at the teen's eye-level, though the blonde had a suspicion it was because it was easier for Reborn to kick him that way. All in all it was a regular morning. This, however, was about to change as a young girl who looked to bit about Nari's age jumped on the fence in front of Reborn.

Ienari jumped in surprise as the girl suddenly appeared. He watched bemused as she tried to find her balance on the narrow fence.

"Hello." said the girl whose brown hair was tied in a ponytail.

"Ciaossu." replied Reborn as if there was nothing more normal than having a girl jump on a fence to greet him.

"My name is Miura Haru." said the girl, blushing for some reason.

"I know about you. You're from that house." said Reborn pointing to a nearby house.

"Would you be my friend?" asked Miura Haru.

"Sure." replied the baby.

The girl looked like she had fainted and started falling sideways. The movement pulled Ienari out of his stupor.

"Hey!" he shouted as he stepped towards the falling girl.

His help wasn't necessary however, as the girl fell on her feet and stroke a victorious pose.

"Woohooo!" she yelled.

'_What a weirdo._' thought Ienari. This situation was beyond him in more ways than one. Thankfully neither Reborn nor the girl seemed to want him to join the bizarre conversation.

"It's rather sudden." said the girl addressing Reborn. "But can you hug me like this?" she said hugging herself.

"Don't touch me so easily." said Reborn. "Cause I'm a hitman."

The girl looked stunned for a second after Reborn's announcement. Then she took a step forward and slapped the blonde teen. Reborn watched calmly as his student was hit for no apparent reason.

"What the hell is wrong with you, you weirdo?" shouted Nari at the dark haired girl.

"You're such a bastard!" shouted back the girl. "What are you teaching him? Babies are angels with pure hearts! You shouldn't taint them like that!"

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" growled Ienari.

"You're Reborn's big brother aren't you?! You shouldn't teach him such things!"

"He's not my brother!"

"Then you're an even bigger bastard!"

The two continued arguing while Reborn watched calmly from the side. He only looked away from the arguing pair when he felt a familiar presence approach.

"Ciaossu, _Dame_-Tsuna." he said to the boy with gravity defying hair.

"Hello, Reborn. What are you doing here?" said the brunet.

"Waiting for _Baka_-Nari." said the baby hitman pointing at the duo.

"Oh." said the teen simply turning to watch the pair with mild interest.

He was pale, noticed the fedora wearing hitman as he observed the newcomer. And he somehow appeared thinner than before. The bags under his eyes were new as well. Was the boy not well? He didn't have much times to ponder on it though, as Tsuna bid him goodbye and continued on his way to school.

The infant watched the brunet leave before turning back to his student. It seemed the strange girl had finally left and Ienari was walking back towards him.

"That weirdo." he muttered under his breath obviously still angry with the dark haired female.

"You two get along well." remarked Reborn, innocently. "Almost like a married couple."

"One that's about to divorce, maybe." spat Ienari, as he started walking towards the school still muttering insults.

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Roof, Sawa Tsunayoshi**

The brunet pushed the roof's door open. The school's roof had quickly become his hideout of sorts. He had always enjoyed high places which his _Papa_ usually explained by the saying 'idiots like high places'. Whatever the reason, he had developed the habit of coming to gaze at the sky during breaks, and even more so on days when he didn't feel too well. The main reason for this was that he needed to take his pills in such moments and he preferred that nobody was around when he did. He would rather avoid being questioned by the other students.

The boy walked over to the railing and leaned his forehead against it.

His condition had been worsening as of late. His stock of pills being limited he had had to refrain from taking them as often as usual. As a result, he was weaker and sickly. He had paled a lot and had become skinnier as he found it increasingly harder to eat his meals. Nights were the worse. When he wasn't plagued by delirious nightmares, the pain kept him awake. The dark bags under his eyes were proof of that.

He always felt better after taking a pill and it would help for a day or two before he went back to being weak and mostly ill.

He looked up at the sky. Its usual blue had disappeared in favor of dark clouds. It was unusually dark and the humidity in the air along with the menacing sky told anyone who cared that there would be a storm soon. Tsuna couldn't help but think of it as an ill omen.

He reached to his chest, where his most precious possession was hanging from a silver chain, under his shirt. Feeling the familiar shape was comforting, but at the same time reminded him that his time was limited.

As if proving the point, he started coughing violently. He gripped the railing with one hand and placed the other in front of mouth as he tried to fight the spasm that agitated his frail body. As he coughed especially loudly he felt something wet fall on the hand covering his mouth. He closed his eyes and let himself fall to his knees. Warily, he opened his brown eyes. His vision was becoming hazy and his head was spinning. Slowly he lifted his hand up to his line of sight.

Violent red contrasted sharply with the sickly white skin.

The brown eyes widened in realization. Desperation giving him energy, he hurriedly slid his hand into his pocket. He grabbed the box resting there and took it out. His dizziness made him clumsy and he dropped the box which slid a few feet away. Trying to ignore the fact that his surrounding were now spinning, the brunet dragged himself on hands and knees towards the box. He managed to pick it up and fought with the lid. At last, the box was open and shook it upside down to get a pill out, except none came. Desperately he shook more violently, refusing to believe that he had run out of pills. Run out of time.

In one last act of rage he threw the plastic box to the ground. The movement, however made him fall to the floor. He rolled on to his back so that he could at least see the sky in his final moments.

A bitter tear rolled down his cheek.

He had wanted more time, just a little bit more so that he could see his _Papa_ again. Yet it was all ending now. He was going to die there with no one to hear his last words. His time had run out along with the sun-coloured pills which kept him alive. He had failed.

The dark sky became a blur, his eyelids growing heavier and heavier. As darkness invaded his sight, he heard a familiar creaking and a second later something fresh touching his cheek. He didn't have time to ponder on it as unconsciousness finally claimed him.


	12. Friends' crisis

**Hullo everyone! Here is the much awaited chapter 12. I have to confess I got lazy halfway through my correcting so I apologize for any mistakes there might be.**

**Anyway, I hope you will enjoy this chapter as many of you were very eager to read it. I'm sorry to say the real answers will come in later chapters but you do get the solving of one mystery. I won't say anymore, read if you want to know!**

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Hibari Kyoya**

As of late, the infamous Prefect of Namimori Middle School had taken an interest in a small animal which attended his school. At first, he had believed the boy with gravity defying brown hair was a herbivore like all the others, or maybe a little more useless than the others.

He had been proved wrong however as the boy had managed to evade his attack not once but twice already and the second time with a swiftness that betrayed experience. Also the second time, the newly tagged omnivore had promised him, Hibari Kyoya, that he would fight him. A promise which he had yet to honour.

As he walked up the stairs, Hibari Kyoya was determined to make the omnivore keep his promise and fight him that very day. As he had noticed the omnivore often spent his breaks on the roof, he had decided to go and look for him there first. That way he wouldn't have to mix with the crowding herbivores in the boy's classroom, unless he was absolutely sure the brunet was in there himself.

He reached the top of the stairs and flung the creaking door open. His eyes widened as he saw the frail silhouette.

Sawa Tsunayoshi was indeed on the roof. Except he wasn't standing next to the railing (which he had ordered the repair after the last incident) as he usually did, but was lying on the floor.

In a few long strides the Prefect was standing next to the boy. He knelt beside him and ran a finger on the pale cheek before placing it on the boy's throat. Feeling the pulse reassured him slightly. The silver eyes ran over the boy's body, taking in the pale complexion and the thinness of the teen's wrists. As he looked at the boy's hand he noticed a patch of red. He flipped the hand over, his breath catching in his throat as he saw the blood coating the limb.

Without losing any more time he lifted the boy bridal style and hurried away. He nearly ran down the stairs and walked, as fast as he possibly could without starting running, towards the nurse's office.

The sight of the feared raven haired prefect carrying the unconscious _Dame_-Tsuna caught the attention of many students. The angry scowl on the Prefect's face prevented them from trying to get a closer look but most seemed to understand the gravity of the situation and made way for the dark haired boy.

* * *

**Nurse's office, Shamal**

The newly appointed school nurse was happily whistling as he busied himself in his office. To his delight many girls had already visited him that day. Of course there had been some boys as well, but he had quickly kicked them out. All in all it had been a wonderful day so far.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to last.

His office's door was kicked open, startling him, and a raven haired boy scowling angrily came in, carrying a much smaller and thinner brown haired boy. The doctor's eyes widened as they fell on the brunet's limp form.

"Caelum!" he choked.

His expression became horrified as he caught sight of the blood on the brunet's hand.

"Put him on the bed." he ordered, his doctor's habits kicking in.

Surprisingly, the raven haired Prefect complied not quite without complaint, but close enough. He placed the smaller boy on the bed with unexpected gentleness before whipping out his cell phone to call his subordinate while the school nurse called an ambulance. Both males spoke in short snappish sentences and their eyes kept darting back to the unconscious figure lying on the white bed.

* * *

_**Next morning**_**, Sawada Ienari**

Ienari was on his way to school when Miura Haru appeared in front of him. Wearing a samurai's armor. He stared at her, stunned, for a moment and decided to just keep walking. Unfortunately, his plan to ignore the girl made useless when she greeted him.

"Good morning." she said, sweating even more than he was in the summer heat thanks to her outfit. "This is Miura Haru who wouldn't sleep last night."

"And this is how you dress when you can't sleep at night?" asked the blonde glancing at the heavy bags under the girl's eyes.

"OF COURSE NOT!" exclaimed the girl. "That would just make me an idiot wouldn't it?"

"Because you aren't?" questioned the male teen rather rudely.

She ignored him and raised the hockey stick she was holding in her right hand.

"I challenge you to a fight." she announced. "If I win, you will release Reborn-chan. But if you win, I will not complain about Reborn-chan's life anymore."

"What?!"

Ienari barely had time to dodge as she swung the stick at him.

"Oy, wait…"

The blonde had to leap to the side to evade the next attack. Seeing that talking was apparently useless, he settled on running away.

It was then that Gokudera arrived at the scene. The silver haired boy had appointed himself as his bodyguard and though Ienari couldn't say he was close to the bomber, they often spent time together.

"Tenth, please stay behind." said the delinquent-like teen as he placed himself between the armored fighter and the blonde.

"Ah! Wait…"

Ienari didn't have time to finish his sentence before the silver haired teen threw sticks of dynamite at Haru's feet, causing her to blow up. Thankfully, the girl managed to leap away from the explosion. Unfortunately, she leapt into the river. Ienari ran to the railing and caught sight of the girl trying to stay afloat. Her heavy equipment kept her from swimming and it was clear she would drown if they didn't do anything.

"This…this isn't good! We've got to save her!" yelled Nari frantically.

"Then do it with your dying will." said Reborn lifting Gun-Leon and shooting his student.

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, **_**morning break**_**,** Kurokawa Hana

Kurokawa Hana was sitting at her desk, staring at her cell phone with a worried frown. Sawa Tsunayoshi had failed to show up that morning. It wouldn't have worried her so much if he had sent a text or called to say he was sick. Or even if he hadn't sent anything at all, because she would have assumed he had a cold or something. Though she would have given a yelling for not contacting her but that was not the point.

The point was that Gokudera Hayato of all people had been the one to inform her of the brunet's absence. Certainly he had said it was a message from the nurse, and he had had an It's-none-of-my-business attitude, yet she had a feeling he knew more than he let on. First up, he had been paler than usual and there had been dark bags under his eyes as if he hadn't slept at all the previous night. He had even left the classroom at break, even though Sawada was still there, talking to Yamamoto.

All in all it was obvious the silver haired boy had something on his mind. And considering he wouldn't even tell her about Tsuna's situation, he appeared to not be inclined to share.

She sighed, closing her cellphone. Couldn't the have just told her that he had a cold? Because of their secrecy and undetailed information, she was worrying to the point of making herself sick.

"Hana-_chan_? Is something the matter?" asked her best friend, Sasagawa Kyoko, who was sitting in the seat in front of hers.

The dark haired girl gave her an apologetic smile.

"I'm just a bit worried about Sawa." she said.

'A bit' was a serious understatement but she wasn't about to worry Kyoko over a boy she barely knew. If she had gotten to know Sawa a little more thanks to her tutoring him, Kyoko had only met him a few times. When it came to Sawa, a few conversations weren't enough to know him. Even she didn't know much about him. She didn't even know where he lived.

"Is he sick? He didn't come this morning." said Kyoko glancing at the empty seat in the back row.

"According to Gokudera he 'won't show up for a while'." replied Hana, her expression darkening.

The orange haired girl looked at her friend in surprise.

"Why not?" she asked.

"I don't know." sighed the dark haired girl. "That monkey won't tell me anything else, apart that it was a message from the nurse."

"Then, couldn't you ask the nurse about it?" suggested the smaller girl.

"I already tried but he wasn't there. When I asked the teachers, they told me that he had had important matters to attend to and wouldn't be back for a few days."

Hearing about those so-called 'important matters' had worried her even more. First, Tsuna suddenly left for the nurse's office and never came back. Then that monkey announces that the brunet won't be coming to school and after that, the nurse disappears as well. Wasn't that too many coincidences? She certainly thought so, which was why she had concluded that they weren't coincidences at all. Something big enough for a teacher and a delinquent to be involved had happened and she would give anything to find out what.

"Well, I'm sure Sawa-_kun_ just has a cold." said Kyoko reassuringly. "He'll be back soon."

Hana smiled at her optimistic friend.

"I'm sure you're right." she said.

When Sawa came back she'd punish him for making her lie to her best friend like that.

"If it's about Sawa, he was carried to the nurse's office by Hibari yesterday. I hear he was unconscious and looked absolutely awful." said a nameless monkey sitting nearby.

…If he ever came back, she'd cry her eyes out and then give him a piece of her mind.


	13. Lost without you

**I'm sorry to say I won't be at home this week-end, so you'll have to wait a little for updates. On a brighter note, my exams are all done so starting from next week I'll have a lot more time to write and I'm hoping for motivation as well ^^  
**

**Thanks for all your support and I hope you will enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

**Namimori Central Hospital, Shamal**

Shamal heaved a deep sigh as he sank onto the bench outside the emergency care room in which Caelum, or rather, Sawa Tsunayoshi, was resting. His brown gaze lingered on the door behind which he knew his patient was, linked to beeping machines and his face covered by the mouthpiece of the machine that helped him breathe.

Thanks to Hibari Kyoya, he had been allowed to help intervene on Tsuna and had also managed to keep the boy's presence quiet. It was impressive how much influence a boy as young as the Middle School Prefect had. Shamal had only needed to hint at Tsuna not wanting certain people to know about his condition and the whole story had been hushed. Only the doctors and nurses in charge of caring for the brunet were aware of his existence, and they had been threatened into silence by the tonfa-wielding raven haired boy.

Shamal could never express how thankful he was for the Prefect's help. Not that he was ever going to tell anyone that.

It had taken them the best part of two hours but they had managed to stabilize Tsuna somewhat. The teen was now in a deep sleep which Shamal refused to call coma. His heart beat was being closely monitored and various nutrients were flowing into his veins through transparent tubes. The boy was so pale and his breathing so weak that he could pass off as dead. It was a little scary actually.

Shamal closed his eyes briefly. His problems had just started. It was one thing that they had managed to stabilize him but in the end it would be useless if he couldn't find a way to produce the pills which were to this day the only known cure for Tsuna's condition. The problem was the main ingredient…

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Gokudera Hayato**

The silver haired bomber was in class. It wasn't by choice. Shamal had forced him to attend his classes, saying that he wasn't needed in the hospital. The doctor had added that he wouldn't be able to visit Caelum for a while anyway so he might as well go to school. He was thus sitting at his desk, scowling at anyone who dared meet his gaze. He had forced himself to occupy his hands by playing with a pen or he was sure he would start hitting someone.

His inability to do anything, while Caelum was in such a critical condition, unnerved him. And he could only vent his frustration by scowling and glaring at everyone and anyone.

The previous evening, he had gone to the hospital as soon as he had read Shamal's text concerning Caelum. When he had gotten there he had harassed the doctor until he told him about Caelum's condition. Saying that the information hadn't been to his liking would be a major understatement.

He clicked his tongue as he thought back to his conversation with Shamal.

_Flashback:_

"_What's wrong with Caelum?" asked the bomber with urgency in his voice._

_He had been told before he first met the boy that he had a weak constitution and that he needed to take medication regularly for it. However he had never been given details on the nature of Caelum's illness or on the medication he was taking. All he knew was that they were bright yellow pills the boy took once a day._

"_Hayato, I don't think…" started Shamal who looked excessively tired._

"_I want to help!" cut in the bomber, his green eyes flashing with determination._

_Shamal sighed and passed a hand in his dark brown hair._

"_Ever since he was born, Caelum has had a weak body." started the doctor, wariness showing in his voice. "Simply put his body functions too slowly to permit him to live. Whether it's his heartbeat, the production of blood cells or his growth, everything works too slowly. There are also a few other problems which make it impossible for him to survive as he is. " he paused. "Up until now, he has been taking pills I created which have enabled his body to function normally. But he ran out of those pills and his condition worsened rapidly. At this point, if we don't find a way to make more pills, he won't survive."_

_Silence fell on the pair. Hayato seemed stunned by the news._

"_But…But…Don't you just need to make those pills?" he asked at last, shock seemingly slowing down his train of thoughts. "It can't be that hard can it?"_

_Shamal sighed once more._

"_It's more complicated than you think." he said. "I trust you know about the Vongola flames?" Hayato nodded. "The pills are made with Sun flames whose property is to Activate. Unfortunately, I can only make them if we find a donor. You can guess who the last one was and why we can't use him anymore."_

"_No…no way…" whispered the silver haired teen, devastated._

_Shamal placed a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder._

"_I'll do my best to find someone but I don't have much hope. I don't like saying this, but…" he took a deep inspiration, trying to steady his quivering voice. "You should prepare yourself for the worse."_

_Flashback End_

"….dera-_kun_! Gokudera-_kun_!"

The silver haired boy blinked twice, bringing himself back to reality and looked up at the blonde boy who had been calling him.

"Was something the matter _Jyuudaime_?" he asked in a very professional way.

The boy seemed a little surprised by his answer, not used to such stiffness.

"Yamamoto and I are going outside for lunch I was thinking you might like to join us?" the sentence had been phrased as a question as the blonde seemed suddenly unsure.

"I…" the silver haired teen hesitated, part of him wanted to start looking for a Sun flame user but a more sensible part of his mind convinced him that looking randomly wouldn't help. "I'll come along." he said, trying hard not to let his voice crack.

* * *

**Namimori Streets, Lambo**

The previous night, his kind big brother had failed to come home and Lambo had decided to go and look for him. His child's mind was convinced that Tsuna had gotten lost on the way home and was currently waiting somewhere, most likely crying. At least, he knew he would be crying in such a situation. The kid had thus decided that he should go and look for his big brother and save him. He was after all the Great Lambo-san and he would become Tsuna-_nii_'s hero.

He had, therefore, left the security of the apartment he and his big brother lived in and had started his search. He walked in the streets singing to himself and munching on grape candy which he kept in his afro and without which he would have been starving.

As he walked through the town, he received a lot of weird looks from the passer-byes, mainly because of the cow outfit he was wearing. The five-year old didn't seem to notice the attention he was getting at all, as he continued with his mission to rescue his big brother. The mission turned out to be a little harder than he had expected, as he still hadn't found Tsuna after four hours of searching. Worse of all, he had gotten lost while he was looking for the brunet and was now close to tears.

"To-le-rate." said the kid to himself.

As soon as he finished saying the word, he burst into tears.

"A-Are you alright?"

The cow-kid turned towards the person who had talked and found himself looking into green eyes similar to his own, belonging to a teenager with pink hair and glasses.

"Are you lost?" asked the teen who had stopped and was kneeling next to the boy.

"L-Lambo-_san_ is looking for Tsuna!" said the child momentarily forgetting to cry.

"Tsuna? Is that your friend?" asked the boy kindly.

"Tsuna is Lambo-_san_'s subordinate." said the five-year old taking an air of importance.

"I-I see…"

"Tsuna got lost so Lambo-_san_ is looking for him."

"He got lost?"

The little boy nodded.

"Lambo-_san _waited all night long." he said making wild gestures. "But Tsuna never came back home. So Lambo-_san _went to look for Tsuna."

The pink haired boy seemed to finally understand the small boy's situation. At least partly.

"Maybe, he came back home while you were looking for him." he suggested, thinking that this Tsuna person who seemed to be living with the boy might be worried if he didn't find the child soon.

Lambo looked crest-fallen at the suggestion.

"L-Lambo-_san_…doesn't know the way back." he said tearfully, clutching his cow suit tightly.

The teenage boy thought for a few minutes.

"Hum…Did Tsuna-_san_ ever give you something in case you got lost?" he asked as he got an idea.

The five-year old boy thought hard for a few seconds before nodding vigorously, his entire face lighting up. He started rummaging into his afro and finally pulled out a green purse shaped like a cow's head. The pink haired teen took it from him and opened it. Inside was a piece of paper with an address and a phone number.

"There it is!" exclaimed the teen happily. "Look Lambo, your address is written here. Now I know where you live."

The child looked at him uncomprehending. Seeing that the child hadn't understood him, the teen smiled gently.

"We can go and find Tsuna-_san_ now." he told the boy taking his small hand in his.

The news made the cow-kid lighten up instantly.

"_Ne, nee_! What's your name?" he asked as they started walking.

"My name is Irie Shoichi, but Shoichi is fine."

* * *

**Italy, Giglio Nero Mansion**

Aria was sitting at her desk gazing out the window with a distant look in her deep blue eyes. Ever since that morning she had felt distracted. Her gaze kept going back to gaze at the sky overhead and her heart would squeeze painfully in her chest. Something had happened or was about to, she could tell. It frustrated her that she didn't know what it was or to whom it would happen.

Suddenly images flashed before her eyes and she gasped at what she saw. When the vision ended she fell back against her leather chair. Her eyes were wide as she analyzed the information.

_He_ was in danger. Mortal danger. They would have to do act quickly or they would lose him and then everything would be lost. If he died, the future she and her mother wished for would be lost forever.

Despite her knowing this, she couldn't do anything. She could only pray that they would find a solution; that they would find the Sun they needed in time. Because in the end, everything was about time…


	14. Where are you?

**I'll start by doing something I don't usually do in this story: answer reviews. I'm just answering a few which either raise points I want to discuss or which need some commenting.**

**Happy Camper27:**** I'm not sure wether or not I mentioned this before, but I don't speak a word of Italian so it's likely you'll find mistakes (I'm using Google translation). Chances are that I won't correct it. Thanks for pointing it out though; I appreciate the fact that you took the trouble. However, it would take a lot of time after a while to correct every mistake I make so I'll either correct everything at the same time or not at all.**

**FlowerQT02:**** Well I can understand the sentiment. I might try and make Ienari a little nicer, but I'm thinking of leaving him as a mostly neutral character. Not nice but not exceptionally mean either. Nari isn't a complete bully though, he's just indifferent. I don't know if I managed to make that show or not.**

**Next is the vote. I realized that most of you now have an idea of what's going on with Tsuna and Reborn so I decided to start the vote. The possible pairings are: R27, 1827 or No Pairing. I must say that I'm not very enthusiast about R27, so I might not do it at all. I'll say that even if there are nor pairings Reborn and Tsuna will have a very close relationship and Hibari and Tsuna also (kind of like bromance). I have to say I'm currently strongly in favor of No Pairing, but I'll still hear you all out.**

**Please keep in mind that R27 will most likely not become a reality so concentrate on 1827 or No Pairing. Votes are to be made through reviews.**

* * *

**Namimori Central Hospital, Shamal**

Shamal was sitting in front of three computer screens on which white dots appeared and disappeared constantly, with the occasional coloured dot here and there. What he was looking at was the data collected by three of Hibari's subordinates who were carrying a device capable of detecting flames. The colour of the dots corresponded to the type of flame that was detected. Red for storm, blue for rain, purple for cloud, indigo for mist, green for lightning, orange for sky and yellow for sun.

This clever little device had been invented by Verde, a renowned scientist who evolved in the world of the mafia. He was also rumoured to be one of the famous Arcobalenos though nobody knew for sure what those were. Thanks to his relations to Reborn, Shamal knew for a fact that Verde was indeed an Arcobaleno. He had gotten all the confirmation he needed when he had been in contact with the scientist while buying the device. At the time he had clearly seen the green pacifier hanging from the Lilliputian scientist.

Anyway, the point was that Verde was highly intelligent and he had been researching the Dying Will Flames. A few years ago, he had invented this device which he called a Flame Radar. Just as the name indicated the device detected flames in 500 meters radius and their types. However, it didn't indicate the strength of the flame which was why he had sold it for so cheap to Shamal.

At the moment, the doctor didn't care much for the strength of the flame. All he wanted was a sun flame. Unfortunately, it appeared they were pretty rare. First up, not everyone had flames, whether active or dormant. Secondly, sun flames, like sky flames were not as common as storm flames for example. It was maddening how many red dots he had already seen when there hadn't even been one yellow dot appearing on the screen yet.

Trying to refrain from banging his head on the walls he took out his phone, intending to call the Disciplinary Committee members who were assisting him to change locations. He would have them move around town where the crowds were, so that they would have more chance of finding the desired flame. He had to find it; no matter what.

* * *

**Namimori Streets, Lambo & Shoichi**

"_Kimi wa dare da? Boku wa Lambo…"_ sang Lambo joyfully (and loudly) as he and Shoichi walked through the streets towards the address indicated on the paper Tsuna had given the five-year old.

The pink haired teen was busying himself thinking about everything except the obnoxious child walking by his side and the curious stares they were receiving. Everything mostly meaning robotic: his passion. He loved creating machines that could move on their own and do a number of things. He studied hard in order to be able to go to a good university where he could learn all about them. It was difficult to think about it however, when a child wearing a cow suit was singing loud nonsense next to you.

"Hey Lambo, where do you come from?" asked the pink haired boy in an attempt to make the boy stop singing.

He had managed to deduce from their previous conversations (if you could call it that) that Lambo wasn't Japanese.

"Lambo-_san_ used to live in Italy." replied the dark haired boy.

"In Italy? Did you come here with your family, then?" asked the teen curiously.

"No. Lambo-_san_ came on his own. Lambo-_san_'s boss ordered him to kill Reborn. So I followed him to Japan." replied the cow-kid.

"He-Heeeee…."

Shoichi tried not to think about what kind of family would send a small child to assassinate…someone, all the way to Japan from Italy. His instinct told him it wasn't anything good and his stomach was starting to hurt as it did every time he was especially stressed. He rubbed his belly with his free hand trying to ease the pain and forcing his thoughts away from the cow's family.

"Is Tsuna-_san_ part of your family then?" he asked hoping that this Tsuna person wasn't as weird as the rest.

"Tsuna is Lambo-_san_'s subordinate." said Lambo for the second time.

"Um…Yes, but is he also Italian?"

A pair of green eyes looked up at him. The little boy looked stumped by the question.

"Ah! Don't worry about it, it doesn't matter." said Shoichi hurriedly as he saw the five-year old become upset by his lack of knowledge.

They finished their walk in silence. When they came to a stop in front of a modest building, Lambo started bouncing up and down in excitement.

"Ahahaha!" he laughed obnoxiously. "Lambo-_san_ found the way home!"

The teen remained silent, not bothering to point out that he had been the one to find the way back. The cow child let go of his hand and raced up the stairs. Shoichi sighed and followed him up to the second floor. On the last door the nameplate read 'Sawa', which Shoichi supposed was this Tsuna's last name. Hesitantly he rang the doorbell.

From where they stood they could hear the faint sound of the ringing inside the house. They waited for a few minutes but no answer came. The apartment was completely silent as well.

"Ara, ara, is Tsuna sleeping?" said Lambo, ringing the doorbell again repeatedly.

They waited for another minute.

"Maybe he isn't home." suggested Shoichi as they received no reply.

Lambo ignored him and proceeded to open the front door.

"Ah! Lambo! You can't…." protested the pink-haired teen to no avail.

Paying no attention to the elder boy, Lambo opened the door and stepped inside. Shoichi reflexively pushed his glasses up his nose reflecting on why the door was unlocked. Seeing Lambo disappear inside the apartment, he decided to follow him. Hesitantly, he pushed the door more widely open and peeked inside.

"I'm coming in." he murmured stepping inside.

Closing the door behind him, he looked around. He was standing in a kind of living room with a low table in the middle and a kitchen on the side. On the opposite side of the room was a door leading to a passageway. The teen carefully made his way there. Two doors were on either side of the small corridor. He first opened the one the right, revealing a small bathroom. He closed the door and opened the second one.

Lambo was already in the room which seemed to be the bedroom if the bed was any indication. He was the only one there however, and fat tears were rolling down his cheeks.

"Tsuna isn't sleeping." said the boy from where he sat on the bed.

The teen felt a sudden surge of pity for the little boy and he went to pat his head in a comforting manner.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find him." he told the boy.

Suddenly having an idea, he fished out from his pocket the paper Lambo had given him.

"Look, there's a phone number written here. We can try calling it." he said doing his best to sound cheerful.

The child nodded, snot coming out of his nose and his cheeks drenched in tears. Smiling encouragingly, Shoichi took out his cell phone and typed the phone number. He finally pressed the call button and held the phone to his ear.

Never before had a ring tone sounded so stressful and his stomach was starting to hurt again. The only positive point was that no phone was ringing in the apartment which meant that Tsuna, whoever he was, had taken his phone with him. At least, they had a chance of reaching him.

Unfortunately, luck didn't seem to be on their side that day as nobody picked up.

"Th-that's weird. Maybe he didn't pick up fast enough." said Shoichi trying not to show any worry.

Lambo sniffed loudly and fresh tears starting gathering in his eyes. Not wanting the child to start bawling, Shoichi hurriedly started typing the number.

"I-I'll try again." he said quickly.

His stomach was hurting more and more with every minute passing, as the ringtone sounded in his ear. He was immensely relieved when the ringtone was cut off and he heard a deep tired voice saying 'Hello'.

"Ah, hello. Is this Tsuna-_san_?" asked Shoichi. "I found Lambo a while ago and…"

"_I'm sorry but Tsuna is unavailable at the moment. Could you tell me who you are?_" said the voice.

"Eh? Ah, of course. My name is Irie Shoichi. Like I said I have Lambo with me…"

"_Lambo?"_ the voice sounded surprised.

"Yes, he was lost so I took him back to the address that was written but there's no one here." explained the teen. "Could you please tell me where I can find Tsuna-_san_? I need to take Lambo back to him."

The silence stretched and Shoichi started to think that whoever was on the other end had hung up.

"_Tsuna can't see anyone at the moment."_ said the voice at last.

"B-But Lambo told me that Tsuna-_san_ was his only family in Japan!" exclaimed Shoichi his panic starting to show in his voice.

There was silence again, broken a few moments later by a heavy sigh.

"_Listen, can you come to the Central Hospital for now? It'll be easier to talk and explain the situation in person._"

"I-I understand. Then I'll bring Lambo with me."

"_When you get there, ask for Doctor Shamal. That's me._"

"Understood. Then I'll see you there."

Shoichi ended the call and turned towards Lambo, trying to hide his worry.

"Lambo, we need to go to the hospital. There's a man there called Doctor Shamal who knows where Tsuna is. Do you understand?"

The cow child nodded.

"Did something happen to Tsuna?" he asked in a small voice, his small hand gripping his suit tightly.

"I…I'm not sure yet." replied Shoichi. "We have to go to the hospital first."

Picking up the child he made his way to the living room. There he hesitated. He couldn't leave the apartment unlocked could he?

"Lambo are there any spare keys inside the house?" he asked.

"With the shoes." said Lambo simply, seemingly too upset to involve himself in any kind of conversation.

Following the boy's instructions, Shoichi went to the shoe cupboard next to the door and looked inside. Sure enough, a set of keys was resting on the shelf. He picked it up and left the apartment, carefully locking the door behind him, before heading towards the hospital, Lambo in tow.


	15. Will of the living

**Hello, everyone. It's been a while since my last update and for those who haven't seen the message on my profile, this was due to lack of internet and my computer breaking down. I have now bought a new computer and my internet connection is back so I should be going back to normal pretty soon. **

**Concerning the pairings, I've decided to keep no pairings. A lot of you have asked for 1827, so I'll keep a close friendship. For those who asked for R27, I'm sorry but I finally decided I couldn't see them that way in this fic so I decided to stick with a parenting Reborn.**

* * *

**Namimori Central Hopsital, Sawa Tsunayoshi**

_It had been a while since darkness had claimed him. Or at least he thought it had been. It was always difficult to tell for how long he had been in this place. Somehow it always seemed that he had been there for days no matter how much time he had really spent there. So was this strange world he had already visited a few times in his life. Strangely enough it never seemed to change. As always, light blue stretched endlessly in all directions sometimes crossed by surfaces of fluffy white. It was the sky in its simplest and most harmonious form._

_The first time Tsuna had found himself floating in the middle of the sky he had thought he had finally arrived to heaven. This impression had only grown when he had been faced with the person who seemed to roam this world. The surreal apparition would have shocked the life out of him if he hadn't already thought he was dead. _

_After the second time, he had gotten used to it. _

_It was now the third time he had stepped in this surreal space. The third time he had come close enough to Death to peer under her hood. He had to wonder if nearly dying so many times had made him insane enough to create the space he was floating in._

"_Vi posso assicurare, non siete pazzi. (I can assure you you are not insane)" _

_Tsuna spun around to look at the man who had just talked. He was taller than him but slightly shorter than average. His hairstyle was strikingly similar to Tsuna's own except that the man's hair was blonde instead of brown. His features were hidden behind a mask of bright orange flames that covered his eyes and the upper half of his face._

"_Primo." said Tsuna eyeing the man suspiciously. "Why did you call me here?"_

_A soft chuckle escaped the man's lips, as he took a step forward, his black cloak gracefully floating around him revealing the black suit he was wearing underneath._

"_I see you are still as distrustful as always." remarked the man, visibly not taking any offence with the fact. "I am not your enemy, you know."_

"_I know." answered the brunet without a moment's pause. "It's just a habit I was born with."_

_This time the man laughed._

"_That's not true. I can assure you you were a lot more trusting when you were a baby. If I was to hazard a guess I would say you got this trait from your Papa." said the man with a hint mischief._

_Tsuna's gaze hardened._

"_Why did you call me here?" he asked again, his tone slightly harsher._

_The man's smile and any hint of mischief disappeared._

"_I came to ask you a question." he said gazing into the pair of orange eyes before him. "Can you really die in peace knowing what you are leaving behind?"_

_Brown bangs covered the teen's eyes as he clenched his fists._

"_I'm tired. I wish I could have a nice long rest. I don't want to have to worry about all of this anymore. I…don't want any more pain. But…" he raised his head, his orange eyes narrowed with determination and a bright flame blazing on his forehead. "If I leave things as they are…I OBVIOUSLY WON'T BE ABLE TO DIE IN PEACE!"_

_The blonde man smiled softly._

"_I see." he said as his body started becoming brighter and somewhat transparent. "It's a relief to see that your resolve is still as strong as always."_

_When the light, which seemed to emanate from the man, became too strong, Tsuna covered his eyes with his arms._

"_I wish you luck, Vongola Decimo." _

_As soon as he heard those words Tsuna found himself falling out of the sky world and into darkness. _

* * *

**Namimori Central Hospital, Doctor Shamal**

"Thanks for your work." said Shamal as he accepted the Flame Radar from the Disciplinary Committee member.

When the sun had started to set, he had called the three students back. Had they been mafia members he would have them working all night but they were just students and children. They most likely had families to return to and it would be irresponsible as an adult and member of the school staff for him to exploit them. The doctor might be a flirt and show blatant disinterest for male patients but he did have some sense of responsibility.

He stared at the retreating student until he disappeared out of the hospital's doors. His gaze then lowered to his hands in which the three Flame Radars were resting.

In the end they hadn't found anyone with Sun Flames. Even though he had made his three agents move around in all the crowded parts of town, there hadn't been even a hint of yellow on his screens.

Sighing he was about to turn away from the doors and go back to his temporary study, when the doors opened to reveal a strange duo. The doctor wasn't sure why but his gaze followed the two newcomers as they walked up to the front desk. The older of the two, a pink haired teenager who looked slightly older than Caelum and Hayato, started talking to the nurse there, while the small boy holding his hand and wearing a cow patterned outfit and an afro looked around the room curiously. Shamal continued staring at them without really knowing why.

For some reason, the cow suit the small child was wearing reminded of something, he just couldn't put his finger on it.

While he was deep in thoughts thinking about where he had seen such strange patterned clothes, the woman at the front desk caught sight of him and waved him over. Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he hurried to her side. No matter how important your thoughts were, a lady in need of you always came first.

"Doctor Shamal, these boys were asking for you." said the young nurse gesturing to the unusual duo.

The man turned to the two boys.

"Ah! Nice to meet you, Doctor Shamal." said the pink haired boy. "I'm Irie Shoichi, we talked on the phone a while ago."

The man blinked a few times, before remembering the phone call in question. With all that had happened he had completely forgotten about that.

"Ah, yes, of course. Well come with me, we'll be more comfortable to speak in my office." he said motioning for them to follow him.

They walked in silence through the hospital's corridors. Shamal walked in front and the two boys followed a few feet behind. From time to time, Shamal would peek at them, trying to determine who they were. He swore Caelum always made strange acquaintances. Though, he couldn't imagine why Caelum would involve himself with a cow-suit wearing brat and a nerd-looking teen.

Shamal finally stopped in front of the room he had monitoring the Radar's from and opened it, letting the boys enter. He followed them inside, closing the door behind him. As he turned away from the door, he saw the yellow dot that had appeared on each of the three screens. His eyes widened as he watched the yellow and green dots unbelievingly. Slowly he turned his gaze to the two boys who were looking at him uncomprehendingly.

"I-Is something the matter?" asked the teen nervously.

Shamal didn't answer. Instead, he started rummaging in the drawers of the desk for the right device. He finally found the captors he was looking for. He grabbed the teen's arm and rolled up one his sleeves before applying the small metallic device on the boy's skin. He waited for a few seconds in bated breath before the device beeped and a small yellow light glowed.

"U-Um…sir?" asked the teen looking completely bewildered.

Shamal looked up at him quickly.

"Shoichi, was it?" he interrupted. "Would you be willing to make a donation?"

"Excuse me?!

* * *

**Namimori Central Hospital, Irie Shoichi **

The pink haired teen was sitting on a bench just outside the room 'Tsuna-_san_' was resting in. He had finally gotten a glimpse of the boy a few minutes before. He had been surprised to see an extremely pale teenager with wild brown hair lying in the hospital bed. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting from the person who took care of Lambo, but it was definitely not this. The boy he had seen looked frail and short for his age. His delicate appearance coupled with the deathly paler made him look way to weak and innocent for someone who seemed involved in dangerous things.

From what the doctor had told him, Tsuna-_san_, or Caelum as the man called him, had been ill since his birth. His body was apparently unable to function properly without the proper medicine. The medicine in question turned out to be a mystery in itself. Doctor Shamal had tried explaining but he had also said that there were rules that said he couldn't tell him much. The only thing Shoichi knew for sure was that the man had taken something out of his body, that he called 'Sun Flame', which he had used to make some kind of bright yellow pills.

The doctor had administered the pills to Tsuna-_san_ a while ago. After that, he had let them in the room for a minute so that the fretting Lambo would see that his so-called subordinate was fine. When they were in the room, gazing at the pale boy, Shoichi had thought for a moment that Lambo would burst into tears. He had been surprised when the child had simply squeezed his hand tighter and gazed at Tsuna-_san_ without letting his tears fall. Against all odds, he hadn't even protested when Shamal had told them they had to leave the room. He had however asked to stay next to Tsuna-_san_'s room.

Shoichi had complied which was why he was now sitting on the bench in front of the room petting the head of the five-year old who was using his lap as a pillow. He had called his mother and told her he would be back late with a guest. He hadn't told Lambo for he was sure the child would have been against leaving the hospital, but he was planning on taking Lambo to his place once the child was asleep. It appeared that Tsuna-_san_ would be in hospital for a while and they couldn't stay in the hospital during that time, so he had decided to look after the cow-child until Tsuna-_san_ was well enough to go home.

Shamal had thanked him and said he was sorry for the inconvenience especially since he wasn't even aware that Caelum had been looking after the child. He had also promised he would contact them as soon as the brunet woke up.

Smiling to himself, the pink haired teen checked that his charge was asleep before lifting him up and walking away from the room. He had a feeling his life would be changing drastically after this, but strangely enough, his stomach wasn't hurting at all.


	16. Fresh start

**As a few people have pointed out: I made a mistake, Shoichi' hair is red. I don't know why it stuck in my head as pink. Probably 'cause of the two woman who are always with him in the future...the Cervello... -_-**

**I'm lazy so I won't correct it now but I might one day...I'll try and say red in the future chapters though...Sorry about that ^^'  
**

* * *

**Namimori Central Hospital, Tsunayoshi**

Tsuna was sitting on the hospital bed he had occupied for more than a week. He had woken up two days after receiving his treatment and had been resting since then. The previous day, Shamal had finally agreed, though reluctantly, to release him. Tsuna had therefore spent his morning packing the clothes and objects that his friends' had brought from his home for him. In fact, most of his belongings had been taken to his small hospital room as if people were expecting him to die of boredom if they didn't fill his room with his belongings. He had also gotten presents from his visitors, which had been more numerous than he could ever have hoped.

Bianchi brought flowers to his bedside and changed them every three days. She would put them in a vase and arrange them nicely, before sitting on a chair next to his bed. They would then spend an hour or so talking about anything that came to mind. Hayato had been the one to bring his things in hospital along with Shamal. The two males had also given him news from the school. Once they had even taken Hana with them to visit. It had been a big surprise for Tsuna and he had been anxious. Shamal had told the dark-haired girl that Tsuna had a sickness which would sometimes act up and force him to spend a few days in hospital to rest. Hana had spent almost an hour with him, informing him of what they had done in class while he was in hospital and asking about his health. The next day, she and Kyoko had come to visit with a box of cakes which they had shared.

The most surprising visit by far had been Hibari's. If there was one person Tsuna would never have dreamt of seeing in his hospital room it was the Prefect. Yet, the raven haired teen had come, glaring at anyone who dared crowd in front of him. He hadn't sat, settling for standing next to Tsuna's bed and enquiring about his health and when he would be coming back to school. He had left after Tsuna had renewed his promise to fight him when he was better.

Last but not least, Lambo and his new friend Irie Shoichi had come to visit almost every day. Tsuna had learnt when he had first met the pink haired teen, that he had found Lambo when the child was looking for Tsuna in the streets. After they had found out about the brunet's condition, the older teen had decided to take care of Lambo until Tsuna got out of hospital. Shoichi-_kun_, as he came to be called by the brunet, therefore became one of his most regular visitors. It turned out that the two teens got along well, which might have been helped by the fact that they similar personalities and the experience of having to look after Lambo.

Tsuna looked down at his wrist where an orange watch was attached. It had been a present from Shoichi who was in fact pretty smart and passionate about robotics. The pink haired teen had managed to modify the watch a bit so that when it would be able to show Tsuna how much sun flames were in his body. When there wasn't any left, the watch would emit an alarm and the screen would become red. Tsuna would then know it was time for him to take another pill. Out of a new found habit he pressed a button on the side of the watch and the screen changed. Three bars out of five appeared, showing him that he still had enough sun flames to last for a while. He pressed the button again and the time took the bars' place on the screen.

Shoichi and Lambo would arrive any minute now. They were the ones supposed to accompany him back to his apartment. Lambo because he would be moving back with Tsuna, and Shoichi because he was Lambo's temporary caretaker and the only one available. Shamal had had to go back to the school after Hibari had come to threaten him and both Hayato and the girls had class. Shoichi's school finished classes earlier than Namimori Middle Scool so it had been decided he would be the one to pick him up.

A knock on the door brought the brunet out of his musings.

"Come in." he called.

The door opened, revealing Irie Shoichi holding Lambo's hand, possibly to prevent the child from jumping on Tsuna as soon as he saw him.

"Good afternoon, Tsuna-_san_." greeted the smiling teen. "How are you feeling today?"

The two boys walked closer to the bed Tsuna w as sitting on and when they got close enough Shoichi released the child's hand. Lambo took the opportunity to jump on the bed and sit on Tsuna's lap.

"I'm feeling a lot better, now." replied the brunet with a smile as he started patting Lambo's head. "Your watch helps a lot. It makes it a lot easier and a lot less stressful." he added lifting his wrist.

"I'm glad it helps." said the pink haired teen. "Are you ready to go?"

The brunet's smile had never been so bright as when he nodded signaling that he was indeed ready to leave the hospital.

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Sawada Ienari and Reborn**

"Oy Baka-Nari."

The blonde boy shrieked as the fedora wearing baby suddenly came out of a hidden room in the wall.

"R-Reborn!" he exclaimed once he had somewhat recovered from the shock.

Ienari quickly glanced around him and heaved a silent sigh of relief upon seeing that the corridor was empty save himself and his tutor. He couldn't really picture him explaining what a baby wearing a suit was doing, coming out of walls as if it was the normal thing to do. He relaxed a little and took some time to examine Reborn's expression.

Though it was a fact that the hitman constantly had a blank expression. Ienari had learned to notice the almost imperceptible changes. And right now, he could see that the baby's browns were a little more furrowed than usual. Apparently, he was pissed off about something. And a pissed off Reborn was a dangerous Reborn. Ienari gulped.

"Shamal just told me that _Dame_-Tsuna was coming out of hospital today." announced the baby, hiding his eyes under his fedora.

Reflexively the blonde took a step back.

"Sawa was in hospital?" he asked genuinely surprised and maybe a little concerned.

Hospital had to mean something serious, right? When he hadn't seen _Dame_-Tsuna all week, he had assumed the boy had a cold or something. But as far as he knew people didn't go to hospital for a cold or any random sickness. Now that he thought about it, there had been rumors about Hibari carrying an unconscious Tsuna to the nurse's office. It couldn't be that Hibari had beaten him up? But then, he wouldn't have taken him to the nurse's office. Hibari never bothered doing that. He just left his victims where they had fallen, leaving his subordinates to ship them off to hospital.

"We're going to visit him." said Reborn, his tone making it clear that the topic was not up to discussion, before walking away.

"Eh?"

Ienari blinked, gaping at Reborn's retreating figure. He had known Reborn knew Sawa but hadn't realized they were _friends_. Or at least something important enough that Reborn would be worried (?) about the brunet. Maybe not worried. He wasn't even sure whether or not Reborn was capable of being worried. But there had to be something to prompt to actually visit. For now, he would call it worry.

* * *

**Tsuna's apartment, Tsuna, Lambo and Shoichi**

The trio had just arrived in front of the old building in which Tsuna lived. They had stopped short in the street gaping at it with wide eyes. Tsuna had gone pale and worry was starting to seep in his shocked expression. Shoichi looked like he had seen an alien ship and Lamb didn't seem to understand what was happening.

"Ne, nee!" he said pulling Shoichi's sleeve. "Why is it smoking?" he asked pointing at the building from which thick black smoke was emerging.

"Ah…well…that's…." Shoichi was too shocked to form a proper sentence and quickly gave up preferring to continue staring at the scene before his eyes.

"It's burning." said Tsuna in such a faint voice, that Shoichi immediately turned to look at him alarmed.

"Are you alright? Maybe we should find somewhere to sit." he said regaining his composure and starting to look around for a place to sit.

"No, no it's fine." said Tsuna trying to sound reassuring. "I'm just…surprised is all."

And he had reasons to be. Flames were licking the building's walls, coming out from the windows and turning the brunet's home into ashes. All the inhabitants of the building were in the street. Some women, including the landlady, were crying while others just watched the scene with desperate looks.

"Why is it burning?" asked Lambo insistently.

"It must have been an accident." said Shoichi as he kept a close watch on the smaller teen. "It happens."

"I must have the worse luck for this to happen on the day I come out of hospital. Not that I didn't already know that but still…" the rest of Tsuna's sentence was lost as he started mumbling under his breath.

Shoichi patted his back comfortingly.

"At least you had most of your belongings with you, you didn't lose much."

The brunet gave him a grateful smile.

"That's true. But now I don't have a place to live anymore." he said becoming serious. "I'll have to ask Shamal if he can take me and Lambo in while I look for a new place to live. I'll probably have to find a job as well…" he sighed.

"Sawa?"

The two teens turned around towards the blonde who had just arrived.

"Sawada-_kun_, what are you doing here?" asked Tsuna momentarily forgetting about the fire.

The blonde looked a little uneasy.

"Reborn wanted to come." he said at last, motioning towards the baby on his head.

"Ciaossu, _Dame_-Tsuna."

"Hello, Reborn." said Tsuna. "It's nice to see you."

"Erm, Sawa? Is that your building on fire, by any chance?" asked the blonde teen.

The brunet suddenly looked depressed.

"It is." he said sounding extremely tired.

"Oh…What will you do?" asked Ienari.

"I'm not sure, yet…"

"You can come and live with us." interrupted Reborn.

The two boys looked at him baffled.

"Excuse me?" said Tsuna who had difficulty believing what he had heard.

Ienari didn't look surprised so much as thoroughly unimpressed. Sometimes he thought it was amazing how Reborn could act like he owned the Sawada house even though he was just a freeloader.

"I said, you can come and live with us." repeated Reborn.

"I-I can't possibly…What will Mrs Sawada say? And I have Lambo with me! It would be too much trouble."

"I think it'd be fine." said Ienari surprising everyone, including himself. "Mom won't mind."

"Then it's settled." announced Reborn, not even waiting for Tsuna's opinion. "Let's go."


	17. The past always catches up to you

**This chapter is shorter than most but it's pretty sad so it compensates (not at all but let's pretend it does for the madwoman's sake ^^').**

* * *

**Sawada Household**

"Of course! It's no problem at all!" exclaimed Sawada Nana looking absolutely overjoyed.

Ienari had just explained to her about Tsuna and Lambo's situation and asked her if they could stay at the Sawada home for the time being. She was now happily making a list of the things she was going to have to do to accommodate the two boys. The room's other inhabitants listened politely to her enthusiastic speech. Only Tsuna paid no attention to what was being said.

He was staring fixedly at the oblivious woman in front of him. Ever since he had first seen her, he had been frozen into a stunned silence. He was completely unable to move or think and was thus left to stare and gape as if he had never seen a woman in his life.

It was just that when he had accepted Ienari's…or rather Reborn's offer, he hadn't really been thinking; at least not clearly. Because of this, the fact that he would meet this woman, Sawada Nana, had failed to register in his mind. But that wasn't all. It wasn't just meeting her. It was living with her. Living with the incarnation of what he had always yearned for and simultaneously what he dreaded the most.

Suddenly, he clasped a hand to his lips. It resounded with a loud smack and everybody turned to look at him with bewildered expression (a lifted eyebrow in Reborn's case, which was probably the closest to surprise he ever showed).

"What's wrong?" asked Ienari alarmed at the sight of Tsuna who was starting to turn green.

"Feel sick." muttered the boy behind his hand.

Catching on, Ienari grabbed his arm and led him to the bathroom. The others followed just in time to see Ienari hand the other boy a towel to wipe his mouth.

"Oh dear!" cried Nana, sounding genuinely worried. "We should call the doctor."

"No."

Tsuna's voice had been barely above a whisper but it had succeeded in catching everybody's attention. Getting to his feet the small boy, forced his lips into a bright smile which would never expect to see on someone who was just sick.

"I feel better already." he told them. "I think I'll just rest for a while if you don't mind. Today has been very stressful."

Nana's eyes widened and she placed her hands in front of her open mouth.

"Of course it's been stressful, I wasn't thinking!" she exclaimed. "Just wait a few minutes. I'll get your room ready and you can get a good rest."

She left for the guest room as she had finished her sentence. While she prepared the bed for Tsuna, the two teens took care of cleaning the bathroom. Once it was once more spotless, Nari left Tsuna inside to clean himself. He came back a minute later with clean pyjamas which looked almost baggy on the thin boy before he guided him to the room. Tsuna thanked him politely for his help and he left. As soon as the door closed behind his classmate, Tsuna's smile dropped in favour of a mask of cold rage, mixed with disgust. This house, these people, it all brought back memories he would rather forget. Had fate not tortured him enough? Surely he must have something absolutely horrible in a previous life to be punished in such a cruel way in this one. He brought a hand to his eyes and suddenly he just looked tired. Not physically, but emotionally.

He had gone through a lot in thirteen years. More than the average people would see in a lifetime. A lot more. Just a few days ago he had been dying. When he had soon his end approaching he had wished strongly for more time but now he had to wonder if it was worth it. Why did he suffer so much? Nothing, not even Hell, could be worse than this. So much, so many nightmares, so many dreams that would never become reality. So many betrayals.

Maybe he should just quit. Maybe finding his _Papa_, a man who had mostly abandoned him, was not worth his going through all of this. Maybe he was a mistake, like that man had said. Maybe he should never have been alive in the first place. Maybe he should have died long ago and fate was just trying to put things right by killing him.

"_Idiot Caelum. Of course, I would come to fetch you. We're family aren't we? You're my son, I'd go to the end of the world to fetch you."_

A sob racked his frail body as the beloved voice talked in his memory.

That liar. Yet, despite everything he had done, his betrayal, his lies, he loved him with everything he had. The time spent with him was so precious, there was nothing he wouldn't do to get it back. Nothing he wouldn't go through to spend even one second more in his _Papa_'s stiff yet warm embrace.

But he wished…He wished it didn't have to be so painful. He wished _Papa_ hadn't left. He wished he hadn't lied when he had said he would go to the end of the world to find him. Even though they were useless wishes because one couldn't change the past, he kept murmuring them to the otherwise silent room. Because sometimes wishes were meant to be useless and unattainable.

"Please, just come back to me!"

* * *

**Sawada Household, Sawada Nana**

Dinner had ended just a few minutes earlier and Nana was busying herself washing the dishes. As she wiped plates clean, her thoughts focused on the older of her two house guests. He was so similar to her son it had shocked her. They weren't identical, but they could have easily passed for brothers. And when Nari had told her his name, Tsunayoshi, she had had to refrain from gasping in shock.

Her warm brown eyes filled with tears. Tsunayoshi. Her oldest son had been called Tsunayoshi. He had been Ienari's twin brother, born just over five seconds before the blond. He had been such a beautiful baby! If Ienari took after his father, Tsuna had looked just like his mother. She had loved him instantly. Of course she adored Ienari as well, but deep down Tsuna had been her favourite. His tuft of brown hair and all-knowing eyes had charmed her. Ever since she had first seen his smile she had believed it to be the most beautiful thing in the world. Tsuna's smile could lit up a whole room. It had made her feel like the luckiest mother of Earth. Her heart felt as if it was flying in the sky. It was such an incredible sensation, such a beautiful smile!

A tear dropped in the washing water.

Had it been a punishment for preferring him over Ienari? Tsuna had been too weak to survive. He had died a few week after he was born. She had never cried so much as the day they buried him. She remembered with fearsome precision her husband's clenched jaw and the tears in his eyes he refused to shed. Iemitsu had been very fond of Tsuna. The baby's death had been heart breaking for them both.

She inhaled deeply as the doctor's resounded in her memory.

"_I'm sorry Mr and Mrs Sawada, but your son, Tsunayoshi has just passed away. I understand that this is very painful for the both of you but please keep in mind that his body would never permitted him to live a normal life. At best he would have been in a hospital all the time…"_

She brushed the tear away and chased the memories away to a corner of her mind. It was all in the past now, there was no point thinking about it.

* * *

**Namimori Central Hospital, Shamal**

"Damn." muttered the female-obsessed doctor as he reviewed the data in front. "Damnit!"

He banged his fist angrily on the desk, gritting his teeth. He exhaled deeply and let his face sink in his hands.

"Damnit." he muttered again weakly.

He continued cursing under his breath while the screen of his computer remained unperturbed. Caelum's health status was written there in the form of numbers and it wasn't positive.

"Why the hell is it always him?" asked Shamal to the silent study, his voice cracking towards the end. "And why am I always the one announcing the bad news?"

He raised his tearless face and gazed in the distance.

"I should never have gotten close." he muttered to himself. "This is all your fault Reborn! And I'm going to make damn sure you know it."

He opened his hand palms up and let his gaze rest on them.

At this point, he didn't think Caelum would stop him. This made it even harder if possible. Was it the right thing to do? Did it have to be the right thing to do? Caelum deserved some happiness. He personally felt like murdering Reborn but that was more likely to make Caelum cry.

He sighed again and let himself sink in the back of his chair.

And even if _'Papa'_ remembered his son, what then? It wouldn't change anything to the fact that Caelum…

He closed his eyes.

"Someone is going to have to pay for this." he told the room. "And I'm not sure their life will be enough."


	18. Clouded Sky

**Right, a very short chapter which will (hopefully) be the last in the super depressing chapters series ^^  
**

**Also, I was too lazy to check for any mistakes so there might be a lot more than usual. Sorry about it, but I really can't be bothered just yet...^^'**

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Roof, Tsuna and Hibari Kyoya**

Tsuna was standing on the roof clinging to the railing as he had done many times before. Yet this particular time was different. He had just come back from the nurse's office where Shamal had insisted on talking to him about something important. He was currently waiting for the renowned blood-thirsty Prefect of Namimori to show up. They hadn't made an appointment but Tsuna was convinced Hibari Kyoya would come. And this for a very simple reason: the Prefect had been practically stalking him to get the fight Tsuna had promised what seemed to have been years ago. It hadn't been that long of course. But sometimes, it felt like the Tsuna he had been then had been a whole different one. He felt like he had aged fifty years in just a few days.

The door creaked open behind him and a ghost of a smile floated on the brunet's lips. He turned around.

"Hello Kyoya, glad you could make it." said Tsuna with a calm smile.

"Omnivore." replied the Prefect, raising his tonfas.

Tsuna also took a combat position, revealing his gloved fists previously hidden behind his back. The Prefects' eyes narrowed dangerously when he saw the white and red mittens adorning the smaller boy's hands. He opened his mouth to tell Tsuna he had better take this fight seriously when a bright orange flame burst into life on the boy's forehead. To the Prefect's astonishment, the mittens turned into a pair of black metal clad gloves.

"Maybe I should warn you that few of those who have seen me wear those X-Gloves have lived to tell the tale." said Tsuna in a voice lower and a lot more confident than his usual one.

Hibari gazed into the boy's bright orange eyes and smirked.

"I'll bite you to death." he announced.

Tsuna smiled.

"In that case, I'll defeat you with my dying will."

His smile disappeared and a new burst of sky flames erupted on his forehead. Eyes narrowed with determination, he leapt forward.

Tonfas clashed with X-Gloves in a flurry of powerful blows. Both boys fought with exceptional skills and strong determination. They were however, far from equally matched. Hibari saw this in the first minute of the fight. Tsuna was faster than he was, and though his blows were not as heavy as the Prefect's, he made up for it with experience and skill. A minute and a half later, both fighters leapt backwards. They stood eyeing each other while looking for flaws in their adversary's guard.

Hibari could feel his breath getting quicker and he knew the intense battle was tiring him faster than it should. He took in the calm and regular pattern in which Tsuna breathed and knew at once he was no match in endurance with the boy. He narrowed his grey eyes. He would just have to finish him off quickly. He ran forward.

Tsuna didn't look surprised to see him attack suddenly and stood unmoving. Strangely enough, the gloved boy didn't make any move to stop the other boy's attack.

At the last moment, Tsuna took a step forward and placed a hand on Hibari's shoulder which he used to heave himself up in the air, narrowly avoiding the Prefect's tonfa. His hand still clenching Hibari's shoulder, Tsuna placed his free hand behind him and released his flames. This served to propel him forward. Hibari was pushed to the ground, Tsuna on top of him.

The Prefect's back hit the floor and the impact made him drop his metal tonfa. His weapons fell to the ground in a resounding clatter.

Tsuna had both his hands on the older boy's shoulder, stopping him from moving his outstretched arms. They were once again in a compromising position, except this time Tsuna didn't move away. His glowing orange gaze was fixed upon Hibari's grey one. The Prefect looked back into the younger boy's eyes unable to move away. Tsuna had a soft smile playing on his lips and his eyes held so much beauty that Hibari could not find it in him to look away. Had he been anyone else he might have thought an angel was looking down on him.

Without warning a tear dropped from the orange and rolled down the Prefect's cheek. The grey eyes widened, still fixed upon those eyes and that smile.

"Kyoya." said Tsuna.

The Prefect's heart thumped painfully in his chest. It was the first in a long time anyone had called his name in such a tender way. And yet…the boy's voice was so infinitely sad. At this moment, Hibari Kyoya became certain that the boy was indeed an omnivore: stronger than any carnivore yet kinder and more compassionate than herbivores.

"Kyoya." repeated Tsuna. "Do you know? I have an illness which makes impossible for my body to function properly. Ever since I was born I have been in danger of dying at any given moment."

The Prefect held his breath as tears continued rolling down his cheek.

"I always thought I would be alright. When you've known all your life that death is just a step away, you can't really find it scary, can you?" the smile faltered as heavy tears poured down the sky-wide eyes. "But Kyoya, do you know what?" Tsuna's voice cracked and he took a deep breath. "I'm terrified!" he blurted his eyes suddenly reverting to their original brown colour. "I'm scared to die! I'm just so…scared." he gulped.

The boy's monologue was interrupted by a sob racking his frail body.

"I'm scared because…if…if I die now…Kyoya…he won't know!" the sentence had ended in a horrified whisper and it was in the same way that Tsuna continued. "_Papa_…won't know…and even if he does…wouldn't care...because…because…I'm just a stranger!"

Another sob cut the boy off.

"Kyoya…I'm scared. I don't have time." said the boy in a harsh whisper. "I don't know what to do, Kyoya."

It felt strange to Kyoya to be told Tsuna didn't know what to do when he himself was at a loss as to what he should at the present moment. He didn't have any experience with crying boys, or even with crying people in general and he could tell he would be at a loss anyway. This wasn't the kind of sadness you could brush away with 'it's going to be okay' because it was evidently not going to be okay. Nothing was okay. Tsuna was going to die. He had lost hope.

Slowly, Kyoya placed on the back of the boy's neck and brought it down to his shoulder while his other arm circled the boy's thin waist. Another sob shook the small boy's entire body followed by another. Soon, Tsuna was crying freely on the other boy's shoulder and Kyoya was only too glad his cheeks were already wet from the boy's tears because if a tear escaped his own eyes no one would be the wiser.

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Courtyard, Sasagawa Ryohei and Tsuna**

A muscular boy with a short white hair, tanned skin and a band aid stuck across his nose bridge was standing in front of the school's doors with his arms crossed. Sasagawa Ryohei, elder brother of Sasagawa Kyoko, was an extreme man, and the captain of Namimori's Boxing Club.

"Onii-chan?" asked a red haired girl who had just stepped out of the building. "What are you doing?"

"I extremely waiting for someone!" replied the teen.

"Who are you waiting for?" enquired his sister curiously.

"An extremely strong boy with an extreme haircut!" yelled the boy throwing his bandaged fist in the air. "HIS PUNCH WAS EXTREME. I'LL EXTREMELY MAKE HIM JOIN THE BOXING CLUB!"

The girl sweat-dropped.

"I see." was all she said.

It was that moment Tsuna chose to exit the school.

"Ah! Sawa-_kun, _see you tomorrow." said Kyoko with a sweet smile.

"Y-yes, see you tomorrow, Sasagawa-_san_." replied the brunet with a hesitant laugh.

"SAWA!" yelled the boxing captain. "EXTREMELY JOIN THE BOXING CLUB!"

"Uh?" replied Tsuna intelligently his eyes as wide as saucepans.

"I SAW YOUR EXTREME FIGHT WITH HIBARI." yelled the older teen as an explanation. "YOUR PUNCHES WERE EXTREME! EXTREMELY JOIN THE BOXING CLUB!"

"I'm sorry, Sawa-_kun_." said Kyoko. "My brother is very enthusiastic about boxing. You don't have to join the club, though."

"A-aaaah…I'm sorry Kyoko's brother but I can't join the boxing club. I have a medical condition which could take a turn for the worse if I overexert myself." he laughed in an embarrassed way.

_Well, I wouldn't have joined anyway but he doesn't need to know that._

"WHAT?!" yelled the older teen. "SAWA, YOU'RE EXTREMELY SICK?!"

"Er, yes…"

That was actually a good way of putting it. You couldn't have a more extreme illness than a fatal one could you? It was doubtful at best.

With a forced smile and a wave, Tsuna took his leave. As he walked back towards the Sawada household, he looked up at the clouded sky overhead. He couldn't help thinking that the sky must look at his worse if the cloud took so much trouble to hide him. And soon rain would fall, as if the sky was crying. Maybe there would be a storm to express the sky's howls of pain. Thunder might strike as randomly as fate seemed to. Afterwards, there might even be mist draping the Earth like a veil, preventing anyone from seeing the torn sky. And all the while, the sun would remain hidden, clueless as to what its sky was going through.

How terribly ironic for an element supposed to heal the pain and chase the shadows away. A bitter laugh escaped the boy's lips. At least the sky wasn't suffering alone…


	19. The fault is mine

**Namimori Middle School, **_**Roof**_**, Gokudera Hayato and Tsuna**

"Caelum, how bad is it?"

It was Hayato who had asked this question. He was looking at the city, his back turned to his friend. Tsuna was sitting on the floor a little further away eating a _bento_ prepared by Nana (he still couldn't call her _Mama_ as she had requested).

"Hmm? It's not bad." he said sounding surprised. "It's actually pretty good."

Hayato gave him a quizzical look above his shoulder. He sighed deeply before going back to his earlier contemplation.

"I'm not talking about the food." he said in a don't-make-yourself-sound-more-stupid-than-you-actually-are voice.

Understanding flashed in the warm brown eyes and the boy placed the_ bento_ on the floor in front of him. He gazed at it seemingly lost in thoughts for a few moments.

"It's not very good." he said at last.

Hayato had to bite back an acid remark. His breathed in and out a few times, so as to not let himself be ruled by his growing frustration.

"Caelum, I know you have never been worse. I want to know exactly how bad it is. I want to know if…" he trailed off suddenly unsure.

"If you should prepare yourself for the worse." finished Tsuna softly.

The silver haired bomber whipped around his mouth opened, ready to say something, but closed it when his green gaze met Tsuna's. The smaller boy was smiling sadly.

"It's alright Hayato. I know." he told the silver haired teen.

The brown eyes drifted to his pale hands.

"I don't have much time, left. A year at most." he said, not meeting the other's eye.

Hayato stood gaping, unable to produce any kind of sound and gripping the rail for support.

"No." he breathed at last.

The brown eyes looked up with mild curiosity.

"No." repeated the boy more firmly. "It can't be."

"Hayato…"

"Caelum!" interrupted the bomber. "You can't die! You…"

The brunette lifted a hand, effectively stopping the other teen before he started his rant.

"You knew, Hayato. You knew from the start that I would tell you this one day." he reminded. "I thought you had accepted it."

"I had!" snapped the other teen, eyes shining with a curious mix of sadness and rage. "I had. But thing have changed since. And I…" he paused looking everywhere but as Tsuna. "I had hoped" he continued more softly. "that when you…went away, your father would be there."

The brown eyes briefly flashed with regret.

"I had hoped so as well, but I've come to accept that this is a wish that is not meant to be." he said with more conviction than he felt. "I'm going to die, Hayato. And _Papa_ will not be there to see it. Perhaps it's better that way."

"Die? What do you mean, Tsuna?"

Both Italians turned around to stare wide-eyed at the newcomer. Yamamoto was standing next to the door which they hadn't heard being opened, his expression a lot more serious than usual. He was looking at Tsuna, with a deep frown and clenched jaws.

It was Tsuna who recovered first. He shook his head and waved the teen over.

"Have a seat, Yamamoto-_san_." he said with the sad smile that had now become the norm.

The dark haired boy nodded and went to sit opposite the brunette.

"So, what did you mean?" asked Yamamoto again.

"What do you think he meant?!" snapped the silver haired bomber, scowling at the basketball player.

Tsuna shot him a warning look before addressing the tall teen.

"Yamamoto…"

"Call me Takeshi." interrupted the boy.

"Takeshi. You might already know that I have serious health problems." he looked questioningly at the boy who nodded stiffly. "Well, recently I was examined and my doctor told me that I had at most a year to live."

Tsuna looked at his classmate as he processed the information. He knew that there was no easy way to say it. He had come to understand that no matter how much embellishment you put on the facts, it was still as difficult to accept.

"Who know about this?" whispered Takeshi, who had paled considerably in the last few minutes.

Tsuna glanced at Hayato.

"Well, the school nurse who is my doctor, Hayato here, Kyoya and now you."

Hayato lifted an eyebrow at the mention of the infamous Skylark but didn't comment.

"Maybe you should tell Kurokawa." said the dark haired boy after a moment. "And Nari as well. You're living with him now aren't you?"

Tsuna's expression who had become regretful at the mention of his tutor, turned cold and impenetrable at the mention of the Sawadas.

"I'm only staying there temporarily and would prefer that the news don't spread." he said stiffly.

The change of tone didn't go unnoticed and the dark haired boy looked up a bit surprised by the unusual coldness.

"Of course, I mean, you should tell who you want." he agreed a bit awkwardly.

A moment passed in complete silence.

"Tsuna." said Takeshi suddenly. "Do you mind telling me about yourself? I mean, we're friends now and I'd like to…know you better, I guess." he ended a bit lamely.

The brown haired boy smiled.

"Sure."

* * *

**Sawada Household, **_**Evening**_

"Tsuna!" yelled Lambo as soon as he caught sight of the teen. "Look there's a funny-head living with us now!"

The funny-head in question was a small…girl (if he believed his intuition) wearing a Chinese outfit. Her head was indeed strange as it looked like an egg with a black braid stuck on top of it.

"L-Lambo, you shouldn't say that kind of thing." protested Tsuna weakly.

He knelt to the new child's height.

"Um, hello. I'm Tsuna, it's nice to meet you er…?"

"I-pin!" said the girl in a squeaky voice. "Nice to meet you _Gege._"

"_Dame_-Tsuna!" called a familiar irritating voice from the top of the stairs. "Come up there's someone I want you to meet."

Tsuna lifted his eyes to look at the withdrawing hitman and internally groaned. Whoever it was up there, he expected them to be anything but normal. It was Reborn's acquaintance after all. Dragging his feet, the teen went up the stairs. He stopped in front of Ienari's room and hesitated. He had never been inside the other boy's room before and had quite honestly thought he never would. The two of them didn't really get along that well after all. They tolerated each other, had civil conversations and that was about it. It wasn't the blonde's fault. If anyone's it was probably Tsuna's fault that they relationship was so awkward. He couldn't quite get passed…well, his past, of which Ienari reminded him constantly of.

He shrugged. Well, it didn't really matter. He would be dead in a year anyway.

Bracing himself for a possible impact (Reborn had been known to hit people just because they had taken more than a second to arrive) he opened the door and entered the room.

The sight of an unknown blonde young man greeted him.

"G-Good evening." stammered Tsuna. "I'm Sawa Tsunayoshi. N-nice to meet you."

"I'm Dino Cavallone." said the blonde with a warm smile as he shook Tsuna's hand.

At the young man's words, Tsuna's heart forgot to beat. Dino Cavallone. He knew the name all too well, even though he had never actually met him. The Cavallone Famiglia was allied to Vongola and their current boss, Bronco Dino, had been trained by Reborn. That's right, Dino was the reason why…No, he admonished himself. No, Dino had had nothing to do with it. Caelum had been abandoned before the Dino issue had ever come up. It wasn't his fault.

Tsuna managed to force a convincing smile on his lips.

"A-Are you Reborn's friend, Mr Cavallone?" he asked the picture of innocence.

The blonde man laughed.

"Call me Dino." he told the boy good-naturedly. "And rather than a friend, I was Reborn's student before he left for Japan to train Ienari."

"Train?" asked Tsuna looking confused for the sake of their audience.

"Dino." intervened Reborn. "Tsuna isn't part of the family."

"Oh." uttered the young man as it dawned upon him.

Tsuna did his best to assume a curious expression, half-hidden behind an unconcerned mask. They would expect him to be curious yet decent enough to make it look as if he wasn't. They easily bought his silent lie and he was soon shooed out the room as they had 'things to talk about'.

Tsuna gratefully left the room and went to his own, locking the door behind him. He drew the curtains and silently went back to the door to check that no one was by. Once he was sure nobody was spying on him, he went to sit on his bed. He took out the flat metal case of his pocket and opened it. Gazing at the photo of his father, he gently pulled the chain around his neck and lifted the object hanging on it, usually hidden under his shirt.

"_Papa, ho un segreto da raccontare._ (_Papa_, I've got a secret to tell you.)" he murmured to the man in the photograph. _"Sto maledetto a morire giovani. _(I'm cursed to die young.)"

As he talked, his fingers brushed the bright orange pacifier wrapped in tiny chains, hanging around his neck.

* * *

**Namimori Middle School, Shamal's office, Shamal and Bianchi**

The atmosphere inside the nurse's office was unexpectedly serious considering its occupants. Shamal was for once not trying to flirt with the beautiful woman sitting on one of the beds. He was smoking next to the open window, looking absently at his desk.

"I…I can't believe this." said Bianchi softly after a while. "Even though I knew, I just…"

"I know." said the doctor gravely. "It's the same for me."

They stayed silent for a few minutes more.

"Shamal, why is he getting worse? I thought you had managed to make his medicine."

The doctor sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"I wish I knew." he muttered dejectedly. "All I can say is that his whole body seems to be rotting away. It seems it's going steadily towards a massive break-down."

"But why?" insisted the pink haired woman. "Is there any reason why his body would be failing?"

Shamal shook his head.

"Bianchi, there's something I want to do for Caelum." said the doctor.

The young woman looked at him questioningly.

"I want to make his _Papa_ remember him."

Bianchi's eyes widened in shock.

"Can you do that?" she asked.

That man smiled with bitter humor.

"Well, yes. I was the one who made him forget in the first place, after all."


End file.
